- From: Matthew Thomas <mpt@myrealbox.com>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 20:16:13 +1200
On 17 Jun, 2004, at 4:10 AM, Ian Hickson wrote: > > On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, Laurens Holst wrote: > ... >> Note. Implementors are advised that future versions of HTML may >> extend the grouping mechanism to allow for nested groups (i.e., >> OPTGROUP elements may nest). This will allow authors to represent a >> richer hierarchy of choices. > > Indeed. In fact Web Forms 2 mentions this as being allowed now. "Don't use submenus with pop-up menus. Doing so hides choices too deeply and is physically difficult to use." <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/ OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_10_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/ uid/TP30000359/TPXREF132> "Use only *one level* of submenus." <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/ OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGMenus/chapter_7_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/ TP30000356/TPXREF122> "Do not nest submenus within submenus." <http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/menus.html#menu-type- submenu> "Minimize the number of levels for any given menu item, ideally limiting your design to a single submenu." <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ dnwue/html/ch08b.asp> Those HIGs exist for a reason. Given all that, you should include an informative note that authors should not place any other controls on the same line following a SELECT using OPTGROUP. Because the only way for a (platform-UI-)standards-compliant graphical UA to implement it is as a series of menus next to each other, and the width and/or presence of the secondary menus may change dynamically depending on the choice in the first menu. Or you could forget OPTGROUP (please?) and introduce a tree control instead. -- Matthew Thomas http://mpt.net.nz/
Received on Thursday, 17 June 2004 01:16:13 UTC