using frames

[Thomas Dowling]

I said, regarding Lynx:
> About the only things it really *can't* handle are Java, Javascript, 
> CSS, and lazy Web authors who don't provide ALT= and VALUE=
attributes 
> for their IMG and INPUT TYPE=IMAGE tags.

Leslie Hassett wrote me:
> I strive not to be a "lazy web author".  I know about using the alt=
attribute 
> for images.  I'm not familiar with the VALUE=  and INPUT TYPE=IMAGE
tags.  It 
> appears as if this is for forms.  Is that right?  Do you have an
example you 
> could point me to so I can see what you're suggesting with this?

Leslie--

I'm taking the liberty of copying the list on this note, as I was
probably just spitting out mental shorthand and should have provided a
fuller explanation to begin with.

When you're writing forms, you use several varieties of INPUT tags:
<input type=checkbox...>, <input type=submit...>, etc.  One variety is
<input type=image src="foo.gif" name="variable1">  In a graphical
browser, foo.gif essentially becomes a tiny little image map, and the
script that handles the form has access to the mouse coordinates
clicked on via variables named "variable1.x" and "variable1.y". 
However, most implementations don't really care about the imagemap
aspect--they just want a flashier graphical button to click on.  Adding
a "value=" attribute to this input provides a default value for
non-graphical browsers, and Lynx also return the default value as the
value of "variable1".  Lynx 2.6FM now also supplies "variable1.x=0" and
"variable1.y=0" for scripts that need something for the x,y
coordinates.

So a database interface can create a row of fancy submit buttons with
tags like these:

<input type="image" src="author.gif" name="author">
<input type="image" src="title.gif" name="title">...

This might look great in a graphical browser, but is completely broken
in Lynx, because the user will only see [IMAGE]-Submit
[IMAGE]-Submit...  Here's a real world example, taken from the current
version of Ovidweb on our web site:

   [IMAGE]-Submit [IMAGE]-Submit [IMAGE]-Submit [IMAGE]-Submit [INLINE]
   [IMAGE]-Submit [IMAGE]-Submit [INLINE] [IMAGE]-Submit [IMAGE]-Submit
   [IMAGE]-Submit

But change the tags above to:

<input type="image" src="author.gif" name="author" value="Author">
<input type="image" src="title.gif" name="title" value="Author">...

And the jibberish above might appear as:

   [Author] [Title] [Journal] [Indexes] [Combine Sets]...

We think we've strongarmed Ovid into fixing this for the next release,
due in a couple of weeks.  :-)

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu