[whatwg] Arbitrary HTML in option-elements

It would be a useful feature if arbitrary HTML was allowed in option 
elements. E.g. items in a dropdown could have different icons.

However, I think it's a bad idea to declare rendering undefined in this 
case. (section 2.18)
Since arbitrary HTML in option-elements is a genuinely useful feature, 
some authors are probably going to take advantage of it, if it is 
available in some implementations. This will lead to incompatibilities.

History shows that web authors don't care about what features is allowed 
or forbidden according to the spec. They care about what features 
actually works in "the real world", i.e. in the dominant existing 
implementations - regardless of whether its official feature or an 
undocumented error-handling behavior.

Along the same lines, I think its a bit misleading to warn against 
putting form-elements into select-elements because of usability-issues 
(also section 2.18). The warning implies that you *can* put forms into 
options, but usually shouldn't, while its actually forbidden by the DTD 
in section A.

Olav Junker Kj?r

Received on Tuesday, 30 November 2004 05:57:32 UTC