[whatwg] Web Forms 2.0 - Comments on sections 1 and 2

[Matthew Thomas]

On 17 Jun, 2004, at 4:10 AM, Ian Hickson wrote:
>
> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, Laurens Holst wrote:
> ...
>> Note. Implementors are advised that future versions of HTML may  
>> extend the grouping mechanism to allow for nested groups (i.e.,  
>> OPTGROUP elements may nest). This will allow authors to represent a  
>> richer hierarchy of choices.
>
> Indeed. In fact Web Forms 2 mentions this as being allowed now.

"Don't use submenus with pop-up menus. Doing so hides choices too  
deeply and is physically difficult to use."  
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/ 
OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_10_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/ 
uid/TP30000359/TPXREF132>

"Use only *one level* of submenus."  
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/ 
OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGMenus/chapter_7_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/ 
TP30000356/TPXREF122>

"Do not nest submenus within submenus."  
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/menus.html#menu-type- 
submenu>

"Minimize the number of levels for any given menu item, ideally  
limiting your design to a single submenu."  
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ 
dnwue/html/ch08b.asp>

Those HIGs exist for a reason.

Given all that, you should include an informative note that authors  
should not place any other controls on the same line following a SELECT  
using OPTGROUP. Because the only way for a  
(platform-UI-)standards-compliant graphical UA to implement it is as a  
series of menus next to each other, and the width and/or presence of  
the secondary menus may change dynamically depending on the choice in  
the first menu.

Or you could forget OPTGROUP (please?) and introduce a tree control  
instead.

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