[Bug 21722] New: Ambiguous/incorrect wording regarding placeholder attribute of input elements

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21722

            Bug ID: 21722
           Summary: Ambiguous/incorrect wording regarding placeholder
                    attribute of input elements
    Classification: Unclassified
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: PC
                OS: Windows NT
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: CR HTML5 spec
          Assignee: robin@w3.org
          Reporter: ted.hopp@gmail.com
        QA Contact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org

The CR HTML 5 spec has ambiguous wording regarding the display of the
placeholder attribute in input elements
(http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#the-placeholder-attribute):

"User agents should present this hint to the user, after having stripped line
breaks from it, when the element's value is the empty string and/or the control
is not focused (e.g. by displaying it inside a blank unfocused control and
hiding it otherwise)."

The use of "and/or" is ambiguous and, in fact, different browsers have
implemented different behavior for blank, focused fields: some display the
placeholder and other do not. Moreover, it makes no sense to display the
placeholder when the input element is not empty, regardless of the focus state.

The nightly 5.1 draft
(http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/forms.html#attr-input-placeholder)
has changed the language, but not for the better:

"User agents should present this hint to the user, after having stripped line
breaks from it, when the element's value is the empty string or the control is
not focused (or both), e.g. by displaying it inside a blank unfocused control
and hiding it otherwise."

It eliminates the ambiguity (using "or" instead of "and/or"), but in a way that
is inconsistent with the example (which is no longer a parenthetical). If the
example is accurate, then "and/or" should have been replace with "and", not
"or". Moreover, "or" (and the accompanying "(or both)" makes no more sense than
before: an unfocused input element that is not empty should not display the
placeholder. Finally, if the example ("e.g.") is supposed to be a restatement
of the requirement, then "e.g." should be replaced with "i.e.".

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Received on Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:48:50 UTC