[Bug 9670] Allow "size" attribute for input-type "number"

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=9670

Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|REOPENED                    |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |WONTFIX

--- Comment #7 from Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> 2011-05-11 23:09:51 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #5)
> The "size" attribute however is needed as a rendering hint, and cannot always
> be inferred correctly. It may need to be shorter than the maximum possible
> value, for example if rendering a data table where horizontal space is at a
> premium (this is the case that I'm looking at).

If you're just worrying about the size from a presentation point of view, just
use CSS to set the width. That will be far more reliably than size="".


> It might also want to be longer
> than the maximum possible value, for example to match width of other fields in
> the same form, for appearance purposes.

Again, that seems like a job for CSS.


> I suppose theoretically it could be sized using CSS, but surely if that's the
> correct response there's no need for the "size" attribute anywhere?

It's useful on <input type=text> to give the expected width of the input
without actually restricting the input length to that size. That doesn't apply
to type=number since the data type is known.


> Firefox & Chrome I believe both implement this anyway (Opera
> does mis-render such fields, though).

If the browsers already do it, that's a possible reason to change the spec.
Firefox doesn't implement type=number, though, so at most that's one browser,
and it's still new.


> On "maxlength" again - this is very useful for backwards compatibility. Without
> it, browsers that do not understand HTML 5 have no indication of maximum valid
> length for entered values. I would suggest that instead of being disallowed,
> the specification indicates it should be ignored by browsers that understand
> "min", "max" & "step" attributes.

That's plausible, I guess, though a bit confusing, as it would mean we are
allowing an attribute that does nothing. Usually that's a sign of a mistake. If
you think this should be considered further, please file a separate bug for
this issue.


EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are
satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If
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Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: There doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to support this.

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Received on Wednesday, 11 May 2011 23:11:53 UTC