Alt text and media types for preformatted text

[Caolan McMahon]

> > My suggestion would be to place type information after the opening ```, and
> > alt-text after the closing ```, for the following reasons:
> 
> Existing documents that use alt text as per the current spec will be
> broken. Existing clients which MUST ignore any text following the
> terminating ``` won't be able to access the alt text on new documents
> following this suggestion. Seems like we'd be getting the worst of
> both worlds.

>From a backwards compatibility perspective, yes, I agree. Alt text was allowed after the initial ``` so we are probably stuck with it.

> How is the type more useful for accessibility than a general
> description of its content? Would knowing in an art gallery whether
> you're standing in front of an oil painting or an aquarelle be more
> useful than knowing what the painting depicts?

No, but knowing whether the picture contained text or art would tell you whether to use assistive technology to read it or describe it.

It seems most the disagreement here is whether the client should automatically make some sensible choices for the user (content type first), or the user should process the alt text and make their own call (alt text first)?

> > 2. Knowing the content type upfront would allow clients to present streaming
> > data correctly using appropriate colours and escape codes for code
> > highlighting, for example.
> 
> A solution to a problem of its own making.

Sorry, I don't follow this point.