A proposed scheme for parsing preformatted alt text

[rjt]

On 7/9/20 9:20 am, Luke Emmet wrote:
> Hi All
> 
> We had an interesting discussion on the #Gemini IRC channel earlier 
> today about a generalised scheme for parsing the alt text on 
> preformatted regions, e.g.
> 
> ```this is the alt text, not normally displayed to the end user
> the preformatted content
> ```
> 
> It was a collective discussion, but I've written up some of the key 
> points in a post here:
> 
> gemini://gemini.marmaladefoo.com/blog/7-Sep-2020_Parsing_preformatted_alt_text.gmi 
> 
> 
> Essentially the key design considerations are as follows:
> 
> 1. By default the whole alt text can be used as a label (current behaviour)
> 2. Use CSS style syntax for the remainder, a familiar and low ritual syntax
> 3. Don't prescribe the attributes, allow practice to suggest them
> 4. Be backwards compatible and friendly to screen readers etc.
> 
> two initial attributes seem to have obvious initial utility and could be 
> used to effectively label content in a practical way:
> 
> content-type
> lang
> 
> Best Wishes
> 
>   - Luke


It's interesting!, but I feel like transforming preformatted text (like 
in your example of adding borders to a table)  goes against the semantic 
idea of preformatted text. It becomes postformatted :) You've basically 
turned the preformatted text section into a general-purpose wrapper.

   --I keep going back-and-forth on whether-or-not it's a good idea
   though. On one hand: yeah, it's no longer preformatted; on the other
   it's not a dramatic change, and it makes tables actually legible; on
   the other, oh god, I see the return of table-based layouts--

Still, I think it's more within the spirit of Gemini to show the 
preformatted version, and link to a TSV/CSV/.ODS file for those that may 
want it.

Nitpick: I also think your examples misunderstand what alt text is for. 
'here is a table in csv' is not a useful description to a screenreader 
user. Alt text is not a 'simple label', but a description.

As an aside: Unfortunately I don't think there's enough semantic 
information in Gemtext to let screen readers describe tables well.

I'm all for a bit more discussion about adding metadata to Gemini files 
themselves (even if I suspect it would produce too much clutter). 
Perhaps a better approach is to not tie it to the preformatted text 
section though? Preformatted text doesn't need, say, a language 
attribute more than a quote or any other piece of text.