Re: Feedback on 07 September 2010 draft re DOMActivate

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Michael Bodell <mbodell@microsoft.com> wrote:
> The Voice Browser Working Group has concerns about the deprecation of
> DOMActivate.  I.e., the:
>
>
>
> "Warning! The DOMActivate event type is defined in this specification for
> reference and completeness, but this specification deprecates the use of
> this event type in favor of the related event type click. Other
> specifications may define and maintain their own DOMActivate event type
> for backwards compatibility."
>
>
>
> We would like to see a device independent abstract event with the meaning of
> activation.

The "click" event is such an event.

> The proposed click event is not a satisfactory replacement for
> languages and scenarios that don't have a concept of pointer button, and is
> confusing as an event that means "some abstract activation has occured".

It is unfortunate that the event has the name "click" yes. But it's
much more realistic to change the minds of a few specification
authors, than to change billions of web pages, millions of web
authors, and thousands of tools.

The goal here has been one of accessibility. There are a lot of
content and mind share out there for "click" having the meaning of
"abstract activation". It is likely much more successful to keep that
meaning than to try to reeducate everyone that they should use
something other than "click".

The best thing we can do is to try to ensure that this mistake does
not happen again. Some of the mistakes of DOMActivate were:

* Added too late, when mindshare for "click" had already picked up.
* Implemented too late, making people use "click" since "it works".
* Poor choice in name. "DOMActivate" is both more than twice as long
as "click" and more awkward to type due to the mixed casing. The mixed
casing also creates issues in case insensitive environments such as
HTML.

So lets try to learn from these mistakes and ensure that history doesn't repeat.

> We have been writing our VXML 3.0 specification using DOMActivate to
> activate specific handling of elements and handlers, and we have the need
> for some abstract activation event that is independent of user device
> interaction.  Rather than forcing us to define and maintain a DOMActivate
> event please consider just not deprecating the event from the DOM3
> specification.

That would not change the large body of content, nor the mind share
among web developers, that "click" is used for "abstract activation".

Best Regards,
Jonas Sicking

Received on Tuesday, 16 November 2010 18:05:41 UTC