[whatwg] Proposal: Allow block content inside label element

The speculative wording of HTML5 is actually less accurate because it refers
to a platform control which need not exist at all.  The imperative wording
of HTML4 is both clearer and more accurate.
The Label class described at
<http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.label.aspx
> belongs to the WinFX environment; it is a portable open environment.  I
would not call it a platform control except for a managed browser, which is
a hypothetical entity for the time being.  That means, by the way, that a
managed browser is forbidden to redirect focus from labels while a native
one can do it if it pleases.
I never said the wiki is normative.  I only wanted to suggest that since
this change was overlooked, it may not have been thoroughly considered.
Cheers
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: whatwg-bounces@lists.whatwg.org
[mailto:whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Paul Thomas
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 4:17 PM
To: 'WHAT-WG' List'
Subject: Re: [whatwg] Proposal: Allow block content inside label element

On May 9, 2007, at 10:28 PM, K?i?tof ?elechovski wrote:
>
> The restriction on LABEL behavior is not a clarification, it is a  
> change.

Sorry, that was a poor word choice on my part. By "clarifies this" I  
meant "makes this more accurate", not "makes this more precise".

If you know of any non-contrived Web applications that are broken by  
this change, I'd be fascinated to see them.

> The browser vendor has to choose whether it is compliant with version  
> 4 or 5.  Therefore the current behavior can hardly be called a bug.

It seems to be a bug in the HTML 4 specification. The relevant  
paragraph says: "When a LABEL element receives focus, it passes the  
focus on to its associated control. See the section below on access  
keys for examples." Obviously they were thinking about access keys, and  
maybe they were thinking about voice interfaces too, but not mentioning  
them specifically so as to convey an aura of media-independence. I  
would be very surprised if they were thinking about clicking on the  
label, since no native GUI worked that way (and ten years later, still  
none do).

> Note that this change is not reported on the Wiki
> <http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Changes_from_HTML4#Changed_Elements>; I  
> did not update the content because I strongly oppose this idea.

No openly-editable wiki page can be normative.

> It seems it has strong support
> <http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2004-July/ 
> thread.html#1366> - where Mr.?Raymond's opinion unfortunately sank -  
> but there is a possibility to overthrow it by making it void on a  
> legal basis: The Microsoft Windows environment does not provide a  
> native LABEL control.*
> ...

That's not true. For example: <http://urlx.org/microsoft.com/7354a>

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/

Received on Friday, 11 May 2007 07:40:57 UTC