Re: Clarification for UI Request events (why no "activate"?)

On May 2, 2013, at 5:05 PM, Eitan Isaacson <eitan@mozilla.com> wrote:

> On 05/02/2013 03:36 PM, James Craig wrote:
> 
>> See this 2009 thread about DOMActivate in favor of click. 
>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-forms/2009Jul/0008.html
>> 
>> Maciej wrote:
>>> Unfortunately, Web compatibility requires sending a "click" event
>>> for non-mouse-driven activations. In particular, it is a common
>>> practice to give an <a> element or an <input type="button"> element
>>> an onclick attribute and the page author expects it to trigger even
>>> for keyboard activation. This practice precedes the existence of
>>> the DOMActivate event and remains common. Authors almost never use
>>> a DOMActivate handler instead.
> 
> Thanks for the link, I guess this is the discussion I was looking for
> earlier. It puts a lot of this in perspective. I still think there is a
> need for a mouse agnostic activate.
> 
>> I think you can still use DOMActivate if truly necessary, but most
>> web apps use click handlers instead. Doug will be able to speak to
>> this point better.
> 
> DOMActivate was deprecated. And it is definitely humbling to think about
> re-introducing something similar. But that is the goal of this spec.

Are you asking that IndieUI include an "activate" event (identical to DOMActivate) that has a default action like click, or are you asking for an "activaterequest" event that has no default action if the web app didn't catch and handle it?

I think "activaterequest" fits within the format of IndieUI events, but I'm having trouble understanding why this would be preferable to click. 

Would you be suggesting that authors use this instead of click in most cases? If so, I'm very worried that this would unduly complicate the well-understood and predictable practice of using click handlers. If that's not what you're proposing, I would be much more open to adding this event with the stipulation that authors SHOULD use click in most circumstances.

James

Received on Friday, 3 May 2013 00:43:29 UTC