Comment on the DTHML Style Guide for the button widget.

All,

Reviewing the DHTML Style Guide word document from last week, I recalled 
an idiom that may affect the recommendations regarding key strokes for 
the button widget.

The idiom is the "default button" or "default action" scenario.  It is 
exemplified by a dialog that has a number of buttons, one of which is 
designated as the default button.  For example, the dialog may say "Do 
you want to save before quitting?", and the buttons are "Yes", "No", and 
"Cancel", where "Yes" is the default action.  In this case, pressing 
enter on the keyboard causes the document to be saved, and the quit 
action to proceed.  Also, there may be a specific key press connected to 
the cancel button, say the escape key, such that one can cancel without 
tabbing to the cancel button, and then hitting space.

In general, for this idiom, the enter key stroke causes the default 
button to fire, regardless of where keyboard focus is.  If DTHML is to 
support this idiom, then activating a focused button with either 
spacebar or enter will not work.  Or, rather, the context that the 
button is embedded in determines whether enter will activate the button 
when it has focus.

By the way, is this the correct place to submit comments on that DHTML 
Style Guide?  Or, should I be adding these points to the DHTML wiki?  Or 
somewhere else?

Thanks.

-- 
;;;;joseph

          '???'
- "Bob", W. A. Yankovic -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCG2E6AtNfc

Received on Monday, 10 December 2007 16:35:53 UTC