[whatwg] Suggested changes to Web Forms 2.0, 2004-07-01 working

[Matthew Thomas]

On 9 Jul, 2004, at 12:08 PM, Jim Ley wrote:
> ...
> So where we've had consistent date pickers on forms for many years 
> (such as say the HP Open Skies booking page) it would be wrong to 
> change to a new date picker control, since it would not be consistent 
> with the current behaviour?
> ...

Yes, but only for a site where that is more than halfway through its 
lifespan (for example, if it's been around since 2001 but plans to be 
dead by 2006). If that's the case, then the overall benefit from 
time-consistency with its past UI will be greater than the overall 
benefit from consistency with other sites and other software in the 
future.

But most Web sites aren't planning for their imminent death. For sites 
that plan to be around for longer than they've already existed -- 
including all new sites -- it makes sense to make a clean break now: to 
switch to the UA-provided datepicker, so that from then on, they can be 
consistent with other sites and other software on the user's computer.

-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/