xhtml: <image alt="blah blah" ... /> - what should it look like?

[mark4asp]

<image alt="blah blah" ... /> - what should it look like?

When I use <image alt="blah blah" ... />

The alt value of an image tag is rendered inconsistently:
* In Safari I see nothing. The alt value is ignored.
* In IE6 I see a tooltip
* In Firefox the alt attribute value is displayed on top of the image.
With a small image the text overflows to the rhs.
* In Opera the actual the alt attribute value is displayed on top of
the image. With a small image the text is trucated within the width
specified for the image.

What's going on here? Do 3/4 of these browsers have bugs or is the
xhtml specification missing something?

The only sensible solution to this is for me to use blank alt tags
<image alt="" ... /> and to use a title attribute instead.

The empty alt tag is still needed because I want to use xhtml markup.
However now my <asp:Image> [asp.net] tags are broke because when I when
I specify them as <asp:Image AlternateText ="" ... /> they are rendered
as <asp:Image ... /> i.e. with no alt tag at all.


[FireFox 2.0.0.11, Opera 9.25, Build 8827, Safari 3.0.4 (523.13), IE 6
sp6 (with latest updates) all running on WinXP sp2 with latest updates
on asp.net 2 site using ms ajax.]

 

[mark4asp]

The empty alt tag is still needed because I want to use xhtml markup.
However now my <asp:Image> [asp.net] tags are broke because when I
when I specify them as <asp:Image AlternateText ="" ... /> they are
rendered as <asp:Image ... /> i.e. with no alt tag at all.

Sorry I meant to say:

they are rendered as <img ... /> i.e. with no alt tag at all.

 

[George Ter-Saakov]

According to HTML specs alt tag is used to show the picture's place when
picture is not available (yet).

So while browser still loading picture from the server the alt content will
be shown to user so people with slow internet connection can get an idea
what they are going to be looking at soon

PS: First time I hear that firefox shows alt on top of the image. May be
it's a setting in Firefox and you have it turned on because it's not the
case usually.

PPS: IE support tooltip attribute I believe. And I guess when it's not
available it shows alt as a tool tip.

George.