- From: Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:20:39 -0500
- To: "w3c-wai-pf@w3.org PF" <w3c-wai-pf@w3.org>, "www-dom@w3.org" <www-dom@w3.org>, public-hypertext-cg@w3.org
Hi, PFWG- I had a nice chat with Gregory Rosmaita the other day, and he and I cleared up some possible disconnects on both our parts regarding the deprecation of 'DOMActivate'. I incorporated the fruits of our discussion in the current editor's draft of the DOM3 Events spec [1], which I hope clarifies not only the details of activation behavior, but the intent and implications of deprecating 'DOMActivate'. Here are a couple more important points that Gregory advised me to emphasize: * 'DOMActivate' is not the same as "activation behavior". Deprecating the 'DOMActivate' event type does not imply removing "activation behavior" (note that activation behavior is not defined merely in terms of event flow, but in terms of user and UA behavior, as well). On the contrary, I have expanded and clarified activation behavior, with a much more precise and interoperably-implementable definition that distinguishes between activation triggers and activation behavior, with clear instructions on how a "host language" (i.e. a markup language which uses DOM3 Events) should specify any activation behaviors for that language, and a ordered list of events and default actions that UAs must follow sequentially to correctly allow for activation, in particular with regards to keyboard activation. * With regards to the vernacular use of "click", especially in other languages, a distinction must be drawn between how people speak about a user interface and what event types correspond to those user actions. For example, it's common to say "press the 'Enter' key", but the 'keypress' event does not register events on the 'Enter' key, only events from character-producing keys; thus, developers must use the 'keydown' event type. Providing developers with clear instructions regarding the necessary jargon is the way to yield consistent user experience, and I believe the current DOM3 Events spec does that with regards to device-independent activation. The name of the event type is unfortunate, but inconsequential. * Existing content and languages which use 'DOMActivate' should not be adversely affected by this; languages which use 'DOMActivate' (such as XForms) can continue to define that event type going forward [2]. * The most important goal here is to make sure that all users are able to benefit from equal access; insisting that authors use 'DOMActivate' rather than 'click' makes content creation more difficult, and in fact ghettoizes users of AT to those sites and UAs that use 'DOMActivate' (and those resources are very few). [1] http://dev.w3.org//2006/webapi/DOM-Level-3-Events/html/DOM3-Events.html#event-flow-activation [2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-hypertext-cg/2010JanMar/0002.html Regards- -Doug Schepers W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs
Received on Monday, 8 February 2010 09:20:50 UTC