[Bug 10916] Add a new <control> element to convey the common semantics of a script enabled UI control

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10916

--- Comment #6 from Adrian Bateman [MSFT] <adrianba@microsoft.com> 2010-10-04 17:36:29 UTC ---
The main use case is for editing tools. Browsers wouldn't be expected to do
anything with the element - on the contrary they should be discouraged from
doing anything special with the element.

We expect that script libraries would provide the functionality and
accessibility concerns are addressed in the same way they are today with a
<div> that happens to turn into a control. There is no change there.

The main problem we have found is that it is impossible for development tools
to identify elements that are intended to have the semantics of a control. We
think it's important to be able to provide this kind of functionality in a
conforming document that validates. Two levels of functionality are possible: a
generic experience without any knowledge of the library and a more
sophisticated experience when the tool understands the controls available in a
given library. Having an element allows to solve for both.

One option used today is to have JavaScript wire up the behaviour by having a
function call where the element ID and other parameters are passed. This is
hard to tool even in the case where the user agent understands the available
controls. It requires parsing the JavaScript and recognising the appropriate
method calls. Having a declarative approach for defining the parameters
significantly reduces the complexity of creating an editing experience for the
control values.

Since the latest beta/release of the main browsers are interoperable for
generic elements, adding a new element in this way should be compatible with
current behaviour.

It is possible search engines might choose to draw inferences from pages with
<control> compared to the same content in <div> or <span>.

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Received on Monday, 4 October 2010 17:36:31 UTC