[JDEV] Emoticons: guidelines

[Mattias Campe]

Dave wrote:
> Reply inline:
> 
>  - Dave
> 
> Richard Dobson wrote:
> 
[...]
>>Of course you would, it doesnt mean you are right, emoticons are a client
>>feature and should have the ability to be turned off, which in your method
>>they cant be without turning off all embedded images,
> 
> Well-authored IMG tags have ALT attributes which provide a very
> good replacement that can be adjusted on a case-by-case basis so the
> replacement text conveys the intent of the sender.  Having emoticons
> replaced by stuff like :love: (or worse, :luv:) will leave people wishing
> (a) they didn't disable emoticons; or (b) their friends didn't insist
> on sending them these stupid emoticons.  I'd much rather let stuff
> like ":-)" which is used in email as-is stay as-is, just as in email,
> and let the receiving client replace that sort of stuff on its own.
> Anything more complex is better handled as an actual image (what it
> really is), rather than trying to disguise it as a replaceable regexp :-(
> 
[...]

Yes, of course IMG tags have ALT attributes if sb doesn't want to have 
those emoticons filling their desktop. But suppose I'm is using an 
English client with some sort of click-facility to have an emoticon 
placed in the message. I send it to my sister en she's using a client 
that doesn't support emoticons. Now, that would be just fine, she can 
read the ALT attribute, if it wasn't for the fact that she doesn't 
understand English :( And English may be spoken a lot, it is still not a 
standard...
So there will be a need for some sort of standard anyway, the client 
can't keep a dictionary to translate alt="luv" to e.g. liefde, but also 
alt="love" to liefde or alt="lovvveu" to liefde or ... (btw: liefde is 
Dutch for love).

greetz
.m.