Comment 77 for bug 168261

 (a general comment)

 - img -

img-tag is an old design error in html,
reminding us from times when other media types
were not widely used. Sometimes it is very
annoying that only text can be used as
alternative representation. alt-attribute is also
often used for something else than an actual
alternative representation for the idea that the
image is used for. Correct alt for a flag picture
in language selector would be something like...

<img src="fr-flag.png" alt="display the page in french" />

 - object -

While it is possible to use object tag for the
same purpose and thus create greater alternative
representations. It doesn't always work because
of lacking browser support. If img-tags had
never been invented this would of course not
be a problem. Anyway, if a web designer wishes
to go for object tags he can do e.g.

<object data="fr-flag.png">
  display the page in <em>french</em>
</object>

 - xhtml 2 -

When it comes to the future, I think xhtml 2
team has finally dropped img-tag completely.

Iirc the idea is that videos, images, etc.
would be themselves alternative representations
for something. The code would look something
along these lines... (pardon me for not checking
the actual syntax)

<p src="map.png">
Germany is located at the center of Europe.
</p>

In the light of this (imo sane) notation paradigm,
even the object tag is questioned, as it might
be by people as a null-tag just to have some tag
to attach the media to. There are already general
null-tags (div and span) and the question is whether
or not use of object adds any useful semantics.