Re: backgrounds

Yannick Sadler wrote:
> 
> This is my response to Gregory A. Smith proposal for multi-column select
> element within a form field
> >
> >The MSELECT Element
> >
> >MSELECT will be used as a FORM element like SELECT except that
> >it will always be displayed as a list -- never as a pop-down menu.
> >
> >Attributes are:
> >
> >MULTIPLE    same as for SELECT
> >NAME        same as for SELECT
> >SIZE        number of visible rows (the default is to display all rows)
> >
> 
> I'd like to propose the addition of a WIDTH tag (like in the TABLE ones)
> with value in pixels or % of the total width available.
> 
This makes a lot of sense.

> >MSELECT uses OPTION tags for each of its selectable rows just as
> >SELECT does, but it adds the following optional tags.
> >
> >TITLE  specifies text to use as the title of the list box.
> >       It uses an optional ALIGN attribute with the values: LEFT, RIGHT,
> >       or CENTER.
> >
> >MH     specifies a column heading (like the TH tag in TABLEs).
> >       If used, the number of MH tags must correspond to the number of
> >       MD tags following each OPTION. It uses an optional ALIGN
> >attribute with the values: LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER.
> >
> 
> I propose a WIDTH tag in the MH tag too. (in pixel or % of total width).
> 
This could also be a valuable addition and because these are consistent
with TABLE's behavior they would be intuitive and expected.

> >The OPTION tag works exactly as it does for SELECT with one exception:
> >It must be followed by a set of MD tags instead of text.
> >
> >MD     The number of MD tags for each OPTION must be the same. The
> >       alignment for the MD tag is the same as for its corresponding
> >       MH tag, unless specified with the optional ALIGN attribute
> >       (which takes the usual values of LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER.
> >       The default in the absence of either an MH tag or an ALIGN
> >       attribute is LEFT alignment.
> >
> ...
> >
> >                Results of Query 1
> > ===============================================
> > | Number | Name            | Department
> > ==============================================^
> > |    234 | Adams, John     | Human Resources  X
> > |     33 | Franklin, Ben   | Finance          |
> ><|    199 | Harrison, W. H. | Marketing        |>
> > |   1022 | Lincoln, Abe    | IS               |
> > ==============================================V
> >
> 
> In the present suggestion, the alignment in the <MH> tag force alignment for
> the title of the column AND the data in subsequent rows. Maybe it would be
> usefull to have a way to make separate alignment for title and data of a
> same column.
> 
Although this might be useful in a few situations, I shy away from making
the proposed widget overly complicated or difficult to parse.  It's 
probably best to maintain a KISS strategy for now.

> Also I'm suggesting a pop-up version of this. Maybe not with the <MSELECT>
> tag but with another specific for that. Why not <PSELECT> for pop-up select?
> The main difference, beside the pop-up would be that it doesn't include the
> columns titles.
> 
Actually, if you wanted a pop-up version of MSELECT, the simplest way
to implement it would be to make that the default when the SIZE attribute
is left off as it is for the SELECT element.  I avoided specifying this
behaviour for MSELECT, because in multi-column situations, a pop-up which
has no headers is usually something people want to avoid.  I thought I  
would avoid confusion by restricting MSELECT to being displayed as a list
-- the KISS philosophy at work again.  But I am open to your suggestion.
What does everyone else think?

====================================================================
Gregory A. Smith
303-541-6006
gasmith@advtech.uswest.com

Received on Tuesday, 3 September 1996 15:56:35 UTC