Subject: bug#70871: [PATCH] Show avatars from Libravatar.

From: Arun Isaac <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 May 2024 03:50:06 +0100

Hi Felix,

> There is also not much to abstract:  It's a single 'img' tag.

Well, it's repeated in three places. So, it's probably worth abstracting
out.

> There is no third avatar.  If you haven't yet followed the CSS with a
> Web Inspector, please look for the 'display: none' for that 'img' tag.
> It comes from here:

I believe the third avatar shows up on smaller screens. Try using the
"responsive mode" (Ctrl+Shift+m) in Icecat to simulate a smaller screen.

>> I also just remembered that the alt attribute of the img tag is meant to
>> be used in place of the image (visually challenged readers using a
>> screen reader, image download failed on a slow connection, etc.). So, we
>> shouldn't use the alt attribute as a fallback for users without
>> avatars.
>
> Would you please explain that rationale?  A blind person who disables
> the loading of images would still "see" (or perhaps hear) the 'alt'
> character.  How does my code break anything for a blind person,
> please?

See https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images An
alt text of "A" for "Arun Isaac" would not make sense if read out aloud
by a screen reader. It should rather be "Profile picture of Arun Isaac"
or similar. Perhaps, it should also be marked up with
aria-hidden=true. See
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Attributes/aria-hidden

I'm not saying the current situation in mumi gets accessibility
right. But, while we are changing things, we might as well get things
right.

> For an interpreted language like Guile there is no need to provide
> prerequisite checks at configure time unless they enable workarounds to
> build without.  The Guile module detections currently found in
> configure.ac are luxuries.  I would remove them.

I agree. But, I'm mainly trying to remain consistent with the existing
code base.

> If you prefer to keep them and add guile-avatar for the sake of
> consistency, please feel free to amend the patch.

I am happy to make this change myself.

> I am sorry, but I am super busy.

Sorry, so am I, and so is everyone else hacking away on Guix and mumi in
their spare time.

> I'd be happy to cooperate, if you agree to be less picky about my
> patches.

As a reviewer, it is kinda my job to bring contributions up to shape
before they get applied. I am happy to work in good faith towards that
goal. And, I don't feel I have been particularly picky in my review. The
changes I proposed were pretty reasonable.

Regards,
Arun