[whatwg] Comment on Forms 2.0: OPTGROUP Nesting

[levik]

Just because something is a bad UI decision for 95% of the situations
doesn't mean it should not be implemented. There are times when you
wish to provide deep nesting, such as selecting from a deeply
hierarchical list of options. This is a perfect use for nested
optgroups.

I agree that it may be misused from the UI standpoint, but there are
times when you just need to implement something along these lines, and
have a good reason to do it - why should technical capabilities be
dictated by aesthetic sensibilities? (Even if we largely agree with
them)

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 14:55:14 -0400, Will Levine <wlevine at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 12:59:58 -0400, levik <levikcom at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think the web forms 2.0 spec should include support for nesting
> > OPTGROUP tags inside of a SELECT element. Current OPTGROUP
> > specification for some reason limits grouping to one level, which
> > allows UAs to implement it in a fairly useless way (by inserting a
> > non-selectable line item into the menu)
> >
> > Nesting OPTGROUPs would allow hierarchical menu structures to be
> > implemented for single-line SELECTs, and tree-like structures to be
> > shown in multi-line select (ones with SIZE="x").
> >
> 
> Originally the spec allowed nested OPTGROUPs, but this was removed
> because excessive submenus are considered to be bad UI.
> 
> See http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2004-June/000316.html
> 
> -Will Levine
>