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

[Matthew Raymond]

Jim Ley wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:53:09 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> 
>>On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
>>
>>>So why not use OBJECT?  It would get around the abusiveness (which I
>>>have some sympathies with)
>>
>>I fail to see how <object> would make sense here. Could you expand on your
>>proposal?
> 
> <object name="combo" classid="urn:web-forms2-combobox">
>   <label> or select from the list:</label>
>   <select name="combo">
>     <option>Item 1</option>
>     <option>Item 2</option>
>     <option>Item 3</option>
>   </select>
> </object>
> 
> So all that is necessary is defining the few self known classid's for
> the different new elements, remember OBJECTs are already part of form
> submissions in HTML 4.01.

    Good example, but unfortunately it doesn't include a typed input. 
You'd have to have a different |classid| for each input type. It also 
doesn't give a default value, but then you could use <param> for that.

    The main problem I see with this is that you can't reuse a single 
list in multiple controls, which <datalist> allows. Also, this doesn't 
degrade with an <input>, so there's no way to enter text on legacy clients.

    Very good example, though. I was surprised how much you could get 
<object> to do without creating new elements and attributes.