Re: 27 August drafts of User Agent Guidelines/Techniques Available

At 02:07 PM 8/30/99 -0400, Ian Jacobs wrote:
>"Gregory J. Rosmaita" wrote:
>
>I prefer "initiate" since that is a concept that applies more
>widely: changes that the user does not initiate may be disorienting.
>Also, the expression "activate a form submission" didn't ring well
>to me. "Submit a form" is the best - any way to rephrase it that way?

10.6 Prompt the user to confirm form submission if it is triggered
indirectly, that is by any means other than the user activating an explicit
submit element.

[hyperlink "submit element" to definition in HTML 4.0 of <input
type="submit">.] 

>
>Please let me know why you prefer "activate" to "initiate".

Because the form transaction is initiated the moment you touch any control
within the scope of the FORM.  Initiate is long past at the point we need
to talk about. 
Activating the submission sounds like activating a submit element, which is
what we want.

However, it is not what the user does which is the discriminant but how.
No need to confirm if a conscious choice to submit is obvious.  A conscious
decision to submit may be presumed when the user has a submit element and
uses it.  Otherwise, not.  The important distinction is not so much
initiate vs. activate but direct vs. indirect approach to the _commit_ of
the form transaction.  Comes back to "the system response to the user
should be predictable."  In the case of indirect means of submitting a
form, one may lack adequate basis for considering that the user was fully
aware what was happening.

Al

Received on Monday, 30 August 1999 23:10:31 UTC