Re: Process question re. autofocus bug status [was Re: autofocus on links is missing?]

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012, Danny Ayers wrote:
> 
> Ok, but what concerns me is that the current approach is inconsistent. I 
> personally was surprised to find that input fields could automatically 
> gain focus but hyperlinks couldn't. I don't think that kind of surprise 
> is desirable.

That's not an unreasonable point. The dichotomy is borne from the reason 
we added autofocus="" in the first place, namely that people were doing 
onload="myinput.focus()" with (text) inputs, and not anything else.

Note that on a number of platforms, links (and buttons) can't be focused 
at all.


> >> So when will that be on the Milestone timeline?
> >
> > I don't follow any particular timeline.
> 
> But the specification does: LC, CR, PR, Rec. So if your activity on this 
> issue happens after Rec, the spec remains inconsistent.

While the chairs are following such a timeline, I am not. In my opinion 
(and practice), the specification is a living standard and is not going 
through what I believe to be arbitrary milestones. For the purposes of 
editing the specification and planning when particular issues get 
addressed, I am paying no attention to the LC/CR/PR/etc process.


> > When we should add features, etc, is based primarily on implementation 
> > and authoring experience.
> 
> There's clearly correlation between experience and what gets added, but 
> it doesn't seem to be as directly connected as that implies (otherwise 
> there wouldn't be any new features).

I'm not sure I follow. Could you elaborate on your reasoning?


> Whatever, there *is* a fair amount of material relating to 
> implementation of autofocus behaviour available - focus() has been 
> around a long while, and a quick search suggests a popular time to use 
> this is on page load (for both input fields and links).

Do you have examples of people doing it on links? I haven't seen that.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Friday, 24 February 2012 23:33:08 UTC