[Bug 12245] @size on <select> drop-downs is not enough to specify the drop-down maxlength on long options lists with scrollbars

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12245

--- Comment #18 from Silvia Pfeiffer <silviapfeiffer1@gmail.com> 2011-05-06 11:38:15 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #17)
> (In reply to comment #16)
> > (In reply to comment #15)
> > > > What is exactly the best number of items to show really depends on your user
> > > > interface layout.
> > > 
> > > How so?
> > 
> > If the <select> element is part of an overlay, e.g. a lightbox or a menu or
> > something similar, it would be expected to stay within the boundaries of that
> > lightbox. The same probably applies for iframes.
> 
> This is not generally the case in desktop applications. Dropdown boxes get
> their own widget which often goes outside the main application window.
> 
> This is especially true on Mac OSX where dropdown boxes positioning depends on
> which item is selected.


Agreed, this is not how it works. What I am saying is that as a Web application
developer this is what you may want to do because of the layout of your page.

For example, I have an application with a menu overlayed on a video and I need
the drop-down to stay within the dimensions of the video. Also, I need the
drop-down to be the same length in all browsers. The @size attribute seems to
be the solution for this, but it also turns off the drop-down functionality,
which makes it not usable. Overall, this means I cannot use the select for my
very simple drop-down box.



> > At the very least it has to stay visible within the desktop (i.e. not go off
> > the bottom of the screen), 
> 
> This I agree with. Are there implementations that doesn't do this?
> 
> > or better even visible within the browser window.
> 
> Again, see above, this is not how desktop applications behave.

I haven't checked, but these aren't the point - they would be bugs in those
applications and not something that we'd need to develop a standard for.

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Received on Friday, 6 May 2011 11:38:17 UTC