[whatwg] Re: pattern attribute

[Malcolm Rowe]

Wrigley, Ave writes:
> 1. What is the motivation behind the implicit ^ and $ (start and end of
> string metacharacters)?

Just on this point, see, for example, 
http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2004-June/000320 
.html 

In summary:
* Whole-pattern matches appears to be significantly more common.
* Forms-design applications that support patterns usually make the pattern a 
whole-pattern rather than substring match.
* In the current design, it's immediately obvious if you get it wrong (i.e., 
you wanted a substring match, and got a whole-pattern match). Without the 
implicit start and end characters, you won't necessarily notice that what 
you expected to be a whole-pattern match is actually acting as a substring 
match. 

Regards,
Malcolm