[whatwg] Markup for Web Forms 2.0 that still requires discussion

[Matthew Raymond]

=== Elements ===

1) The <datalist> element.

    This element is a container for <option> elements, and is used in 
the creation of drop-down lists via the use of the |list| attribute. 
(See the Attributes section.) Similar to the <select> element in most 
user agents, all children of the <datalist> element that are not 
<option> elements will be ignored by a WF2-compliant user agent.

Example:
<input type="text" name="combo" list="myList">
<datalist id="myList">
   <label> or select from the list:</label>
   <select name="combo">
     <option>Item 1</option>
     <option>Item 2</option>
     <option>Item 3</option>
   </select>
</datalist>

    I disapprove of this tag for two reasons. The first is that it 
depends on abusive markup for it to properly degrade in a legacy UA. The 
second reason is that you can accomplish the same thing using the ignore 
attribute without introducing a new element.

=== Attributes ===

1) The |data| attribute.

I think we've all agreed about this one. I don't recall hearing an 
objection to it. This attribute is used to load list items into a 
<select> or <datalist>.

Example:
<select id="myList" name="combo" data="dropdown.xml">

2) The |ignore| attribute.

The |ignore| attribute is an idea I came up with but haven't gotten any 
replies on. A tag with this attribute set to "true" will not be rendered 
  and any associated scripting will not run. The same is true for all 
children of the tag. As a result, the attribute turns its respective 
element and all its children into something similar to a comment, except 
that all the elements affected remain in the DOM. Changing this 
attribute to "false" (the default value) will effectively "uncomment" 
the element and all its children.

Example:
<script language="ECMAScript" src="nonWF2.js" ignore="true"></script>

3) The |list| attribute.

I think we've all agreed about this one as well. Generally, this is an 
attribute for the <input> element that contains the ID of a list of 
options that will be used as a drop-down menu associated with the <input>.

Example:
<input type="text" name="combo" list="myList">
<label ignore="true" > or select from the list:
   <select id="myList" name="combo">
     <option>Item 1</option>
     <option>Item 2</option>
     <option>Item 3</option>
   </select>
</label>