LINUX BUSINESS

[Matthew Hawkins]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Chris Wallis wrote:
> Talking about alternate standards, I was today trying to surf a website that
> was Lynx unfriendly was all gfx with no alt tags. I think there should be
> more support for other OS's around out and about.

Support for operating systems has nothing to do with it.  What is
required is strict conformance with the HTML standard.  It doesn't
matter which OS you run, if the page has no ALT attributes in its IMG elements
its violated the HTML standard.

Thankfully, the latest version of HTML is based on XML where the valid
and required thing to do with a non-conforming page is to DISCARD it.
I bet $50,000,000 none of the major browser manufacturers write their
browsers to do this though.  Imagine the uproar if they did!  It'd be
quite amusing to see 99.99% of the web discarded :)

> Could incompatible webpages that do render in IE and don't render Mozilla
> for Linux could that beach freedom of information act ? (Case in point SOGOC
> getting sued over webpages that was not accessible to the disabled?)

IANAL but it should certainly be violating something.  I feel violated
every time my government uses my money to sponsor Microsoft-only
services.

Speaking of which, I was told by the happy non-english-speaking
Australian Oracle call centre guy to download 9i from their online
store.  Online store does not render in Mozilla, however my login to the
site works.  Online store renders in IE, however my login doesn't work
so I can't get the stuff anyway.  Great work guys, when I see the sign
saying "site generated by Oracle Applications Server" I know what
product not to buy.

-- 
Matt