[Bug 17859] Mechanism to enable localisation of form controls and other locale-specific data

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=17859

--- Comment #24 from Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> ---
Here's a more detailed description of the scenario I described in comment 20:

1. Author A from the USA writes a page that says: 
    <body lang="en-US">
      <p>Enter your date: <input type=date></p>
    </body>

2. Author A tests the form from their home in the USA. The form accepts dates
in
   the form 12/31/2014 (because author A's browser uses the USA locale).

3. Author A deploys the page, happy that their users will see what author A
sees.

4. Author B wants to write a page with a date widget but doesn't know how to.
They
   find the aforementioned page by author A. Author B is in the UK. They see
that
   the widget accepts dates of the form 31/12/2014 (because author B's browser
   uses the UK locale).

5. Author B copies and pastes author B's page, tests it, and deploys it, happy
in
   the knowledge that author B's users will see what author B sees.

6. Much rejoicing from users of the pages by authors A and B. Author B asks
their
   users to pick whether to go on holiday on January 2nd or February 1st.

6. We come along as redefine lang="" as affecting <input type=date>'s
formatting.

7. Author A's users are unaffected. Author B's users now see a widget that
accepts
   dates of the form 12/31/2014, but don't realise it. Those who want holidays
in
   January enter 01/02/2015, those who want to go in February enter 02/01/2015.

8. Time passes. The holidays are booked. Tickets are sent. Much money changes
hands.

9. Pandemonium breaks out, because many users of author B's page have tickets
for 
   the wrong holiday.

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Received on Wednesday, 23 July 2014 18:21:22 UTC