Re: use of placeholder as a label for an input

Hi Silvia,

My thoughts are that the placeholder part is well defined, but since people
> may have used "label"  in the past to fulfill the function of @placeholder,
> it may make sense to add a sentence to the <label> section stating when to
> prefer @placeholder over <label>.
>
> However, I'm not overly concerned about this. I think it's a new(ish)
> interface paradigm and people are quickly getting used to it. So, the
> misunderstandings will quickly go away.
>

I don't wholly share your view that the current advice is sufficient or
that misundertsandings will disappear, for instance the advice on use of
the title attribute to provide a hint is in conflict with best practice and
other advice in the spec about use of title.

I also think that a note about its negative effects upon users with a range
of disibilities would be helpful to authors to make an informed decision
about its use.

I will formulate something and add it to the spec for review.

regards
SteveF



On 19 February 2013 08:41, Silvia Pfeiffer <silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi Silvia,
>>
>> I already defined in API guide how the placeholder attribute should be
>> used in accessible name calculation [1] (may need to be updated as I wrote
>> the rules a while back)
>
>
> Ah ok, I missed that. That sounds good.
>
>
> >Or is your concern more about the "labels in text boxes" approach and
>> that we need a recommendation to avoid that and instead recommend
>> placeholder?
>>
>> What i would like to ensure is that the HTML spec provides the best
>> guidance for authors on use of placeholder. What form that guidance should
>> take is still under discussion.
>>
>
> My thoughts are that the placeholder part is well defined, but since
> people may have used "label"  in the past to fulfill the function of
> @placeholder, it may make sense to add a sentence to the <label> section
> stating when to prefer @placeholder over <label>.
>
> However, I'm not overly concerned about this. I think it's a new(ish)
> interface paradigm and people are quickly getting used to it. So, the
> misunderstandings will quickly go away.
>
> Cheers,
> Silvia.
>