Re: SELECT NEST proposal (fwd)

Once upon a time Walter Ian Kaye shaped the electrons to say...
>Hmm. You know what I'd rather have? Dynamic lists. I know JavaScript can do
>actions upon popup selection, but I'd rather do server-side scripting.
>Let's say you have categories and topics, such that:
>
>  category1 := topic1, topic2, topic3
>
>and
>
>  category2 := topic4, topic5, topic6
>
>then you have HTML as follows:
>
><FORM ID="dynamic1">
><SELECT NAME="cat" ACTION="cat2top.cgi" TARGET="#dynamic1:topic">
>  <OPTION>category1
>  <OPTION>category2
></SELECT>
>
><SELECT NAME="topic">
>  <OPTION>topic1
>  <OPTION>topic2
>  <OPTION>topic3
></SELECT>

This is nice - but not backwards compatible.  If you are going to use CGI
to generate the lists anyway, it is a few fractions of a second longer to
just spit the entire list out in the first place.


Real world example - on a support submit form my CGI generates this:

<SELECT NAME="comos">
<OPTION>3.5
<OPTION>3.3.3
<OPTION>3.3.2c1
<OPTION>3.3.2
<OPTION>3.3.1c1
<OPTION>3.3.1
<OPTION>3.3
<OPTION>3.1.4
<OPTION>3.1.3
<OPTION>3.1.2
<OPTION>3.1.1
<OPTION>3.1
<OPTION>3.0.4
<OPTION>3.0.1
<OPTION>3.0
<OPTION>2.4
<OPTION>2.3
<OPTION>3.5R
<OPTION>3.2.1R
<OPTION>3.2R
<OPTION>3.0.1R
<OPTION>3.0R
<OPTION>1.8R
<OPTION>1.7R
<OPTION>3.5L
<OPTION>3.4.2L
<OPTION>3.4.1L
<OPTION>3.4L
<OPTION>3.2L
<OPTION>Other
</SELECT>

It would be nice to group these:

<SELECT NAME="comos">
<NEST NAME="PortMasters">
<OPTION>3.5
<OPTION>3.3.3
<OPTION>3.3.2c1
<OPTION>3.3.2
<OPTION>3.3.1c1
<OPTION>3.3.1
<OPTION>3.3
<OPTION>3.1.4
<OPTION>3.1.3
<OPTION>3.1.2
<OPTION>3.1.1
<OPTION>3.1
<OPTION>3.0.4
<OPTION>3.0.1
<OPTION>3.0
<OPTION>2.4
<OPTION>2.3
</NEST>
<NEST NAME="IRX Routers">
<OPTION>3.5R
<OPTION>3.2.1R
<OPTION>3.2R
<OPTION>3.0.1R
<OPTION>3.0R
<OPTION>1.8R
<OPTION>1.7R
</NEST>
<NEST NAME="Office Routers">
<OPTION>3.5L
<OPTION>3.4.2L
<OPTION>3.4.1L
<OPTION>3.4L
<OPTION>3.2L
</NEST>
<OPTION>Other
</SELECT>


So that instead of one LONG (and always getting longer) list they have the
breakdown by product, and then the releases for that product line:

+----------------+
|PortMasters >   |
|IRX Routers >   |
|Office Routers >|
|Other           |
+----------------+

Much nicer, and it is a UI people are used to seeing.

BTW, thanks for getting the joke. ;-)

-MZ
--
Livingston Enterprises - Chair, Department of Interstitial Affairs
Phone: 800-458-9966 510-426-0770 FAX: 510-426-8951 megazone@livingston.com
For support requests: support@livingston.com  <http://www.livingston.com/> 
Snail mail: 4464 Willow Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588

Received on Saturday, 8 March 1997 08:34:16 UTC