[html4all] Object element support

[Leif Halvard Silli]

Robert J Burns 2008-08-20 11.08:
     [...]

>> This is an advantage of OBJECT over IMG, and has long been 
>> acknowledged as such.

> 
> I really think we should get away from the short / long distinction. I  
> would prefer to say that the IMG element forces a distinction between  
> plaint text (and fairly easy to author) and rich markup text (and a  
> little more cumbersome to author). On the other hand, OBJECT (and  
> XHTML2 IMG) does not force this distinction. The length doesn't  
> matter. The alt text should be whatever length is needed to serve as  
> the alternate for the embedded media.

Forced or not, is it good for the reader to be able to know there 
is a distinction?

OBJECT doesn't force /any/ distinction. And has no minimum 
requirements. The fallback for a movie need not be neither plain 
text nor markup - it could be a slide show.
-- 
leif halvard silli