Re: Dropping <input usemap="">

HI Alfonso,

On Aug 15, 2007, at 5:14 PM, Alfonso Martínez de Lizarrondo wrote:

>
> 2007/8/15, Robert Burns <rob@robburns.com>:
>>
>> The fact
>> that we're finding some use indicates that authors are making some
>> heroic attempt to get this to work when its just not going to happen
>> with current implementations.
>>
>
> Not at all.
>
> Some people might have tried to use it, I can say if it's true or not
> without asking them, but if you take a look at the rest of the data
> provided in the survey at
> <http://canvex.lazyilluminati.com/survey/2007-07-17/analyse.cgi/index>
> you'll see that you can find about anything in the web, and means that
> lots of people don't know what they have put in their pages.
>
> So in order to understand if they have tried to use something
> correctly you have to manually test each of those pages and find out
> if their use is correct or not, not just assume that it could be a
> valid hypothetical use of a feature.

I understand there are all sorts of crazy things on the web. But the  
point is Phillip's research show this is not implemented in any UA.  
Yet were finding authors trying to use it. There's really no correct  
or incorrect way to use it since it hasn't been implemented  
correctly. Its similar to the <element-I -just-made-up>, which  
Philip's research showed was used 0% (in other words authors aren't  
making a heroic attempt to use that feature; but with <input  
type='image' usemap=''> they have tried and that is remarkable).

Going through each page sounds to me like mostly a waste of time.  
Again, based on the research Philip has done of implementations (that  
none of them implement this), I would expect 0% use by authors. Yet  
we find attempted use by authors. That says something to me. That  
says here's a cowpath. It may not even be a cowpath yet; its more of  
a rabbit trail.. A feature proposed by HTML 4.01, but never  
implemented is getting some nibbles by authors. I wouldn't be  
surprised if at some point they just through up their hands and  
turned to server-side maps to implement the feature (is there any  
other way?).

Take care,
Rob

Received on Wednesday, 15 August 2007 22:32:15 UTC