[whatwg] Datepicker design (semi-off-topic)

Matthew Raymond mattraymond at earthlink.net
Sun Jul 11 05:58:24 PDT 2004


Matthew Thomas wrote:
> So if, for example, your OS was set to DD/MM/YYYY date format, a 
> datepicker might appear like this:
> 
>                      [11/07/2004]H
> 
> This is what a datepicker looks like in all toolkits I know of. ("H" 
> represents a pair of increment+decrement buttons.)
[Snip!]
> Single-clicking on a segment of the field would select that segment. 
> Double-clicking on it, or clicking-and-holding on it, could open a menu:
>                              ____
>                             | ^  |
>                             |1999|
>                             |2000|
>                             |2001|
>                             |2002|
>                             |2003|
>                       [11/07*2004*H
>                             |2005|
>                             |2006|
>                             |2007|
>                             |2008|
>                             |2009|
>                             | v  |
>                              """"

    I like all of this so far. It's similar to what I was thinking myself.

> As I said, for year and month this menu would be one-
> -dimensional, but for day it would be two-dimensional.
>      ____________________
>     |Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su|
>     |          1  2  3  4|
>     | 5  6  7  8  9 10*11*07/2004]H
>     |12 13 14 15 16 17 18|
>     |19 20 21 22 23 24 25|
>     |26 27 28 29 30 31   |
>      """"""""""""""""""""
> 
> Now here's the part that would be more efficient than a full-blown 
> calendar. If you wanted to, for example, find "the Tuesday just over 
> eight weeks from today", you could just drag the menu rightward to 
> Tuesday and downward eight rows, and the menu would contract and expand 
> to follow you. (This is similar to the "Insert Table" toolbar menubutton 
> in Microsoft Word, which you can drag to specify the number of rows * 
> columns in the table.)
>            ____________________
>           |We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu|
>           | 7  8  9 10 11 12 13|4]H
>           |14 15 16 17 18 19 20|
>           |21 22 23 24 25 26 27|
>           |28 29 30 31  1  2  3|
>           | 4  5  6  7  8  9 10|
>           |11 12 13 14 15 16 17|
>           |18 19 20 21 22 23 24|
>           |25 26 27 28 29 30 31|
>           | 1  2  3  4  5  6 *7*
>            """"""""""""""""""""
> That would be much quicker than flipping back and forth through months 
> in a fixed calendar control.

    In this case, I think I'd prefer the same control style as the month 
and year. If the user wants to pick an address based on a specific week 
and day of the week, they can simply click on a calendar icon next to 
the spinner that would bring up a multi-month calendar:

=== Before Click ===

[11/07/2004]HC

=== After Click ===
               ____________________
[11/07/2004]H|         ^          |
              |      June 2004     |
              |Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa|
              |       1  2  3  4  5|
              | 6  7  8  9 10 11 12|
              |13 14 15 16 17 18 19|
              |20 21 22 23 24 25 26|
              |27 28 29 30         |
              |                    |
              |      July 2004     |
              |Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa|
              |             1  2  3|
              | 4  5  6  7  8  9 10|
              *11*12 13 14 15 16 17|
              |18 19 20 21 22 23 24|
              |25 26 27 28 29 30 31|
              |                    |
              |     August 2004    |
              |Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa|
              | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7|
              | 8  9 10 11 12 13 14|
              |15 16 17 18 19 20 21|
              |22 23 24 25 26 27 28|
              |29 30 31            |
              |         v          |
               """"""""""""""""""""

    This give the user feedback with regards to both the week and the 
month while at the same time they don't get exposed to UI they may not 
understand.



More information about the whatwg mailing list