BUTTON element

If the HTML working group is working towards a more stable release, then
every new element entered into every new release should be questioned and
re-questioned as to the advisability of inclusion. Those who submit the
extension should prove there is no other approach to take to accomplish the
same effect. You will never have a stable release if you keep adding in
elements that are "handy".

With the BUTTON element, I am reading of a block-level element that
surrounds the block with a button-like effect (pressing button reverses
highlight pattern, giving the appearance of a clicked button). There are
also three types of actions associated with it: submit, which will submit
enclosing form, reset, which resets enclosing form, and button which
triggers associated script. 

If border-width, -style, -color can be applied to a DIV block, why not add
two new styles: button-down and button-up. Then, mousedown and mouseup,
which will be defined in DOM, can change the style or the class of the block
to reflect the mouse down and up actions. A mouseup event can also do
whatever the web page developer wants the block to do, no built-in limits.

If the DOM group provides a specification that enables us to classify
objects for event trapping, then we can define our own class of "button",
which uses CSS1 for appearance, and DOM for event handling, and only have to
code behavior we want once, and apply many times.

In other words, does BUTTON add something new that can only be handled
within HTML, and not within DOM or CSS1 or event ECMAScript. You tell me.

Shelley
=============================================================
Shelley Powers       YASD
shelleyp@yasd.com    http://www.yasd.com
                     http://www.dynamicearth.com

IDG Books Professional Series book on Dynamic HTML, authored by 
Shelley Powers. Out early Fall.

Received on Friday, 18 July 1997 10:38:10 UTC