- From: Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi>
- Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:31:53 +0200
The current version disallows the size and maxlength attributes in input elements when type="time", type="date", type="datetime", type="datetime-local", type="number", type="range", or type="color" is used. I suppose the reason is that for other new input types, browsers are expected to use advanced user interface, either with no visible text field or with a text field of a size determined by the browser. However, the method of extending forms with new input types is based on the clever idea that using a new attribute in input elements, non-supporting browsers will imply type="text" and use a normal text input field as fallback. This idea gets somewhat broken if size and maxlength attributes cannot be used. Setting the visible width and imposing a maximum length of input in characters are often useful hints. E.g., for <input type="time">, it would be useful to have size="5" maxlength="5" (perhaps combined with a CSS setting that sets the font to monospace for consistency) to convey or support a message about expected input format as well as to prevent some input errors. There considerations also apply to HTML5-supporting browsers if they implement the new input types using text boxes. For example, input type="color" could be implemented that way, with the required checks on the user input but with no color picker. Using CSS for the width is less satisfactory, since there is no "(average) width of characters" concept in CSS, and there is no CSS counterpart to maxlength, which is a functional rather than presentational attribute. For the input types mentioned, the meanings of size and and maxlength could be formulated so that user agents shall treat the size attribute as a suggested visible width of a text box used for the value as text, if such a presentation is used, and the maxlength attribute should be ignored, as it is only meant for nonconforming browsers that treat the element as having type="text". -- Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/ -- Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Received on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 23:31:53 UTC