[whatwg] Comment on Forms 2.0: OPTGROUP Nesting

[levik]

This can be done by using a CSS property width: to specify the width
of the control... I don't really see the need for additional "length"
parameter. If anything, it should probably be removed from the regular
INPUT control as redundant.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 19:42:49 +0100 (BST), Jose Fandos
<jose.fandos at sonnd.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> > levik 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").
> >
> >     A while ago, I suggested the use of <select> as a way of
> > implementing menus. If nested <optgroup> elements were permitted, a
> > select could easily be used to define a menu. It could be defined like
> > this:
> >
> > <select type="menu" label="File" accesskey="f">
> >    <optgroup label="New" accesskey="n">
> >      <option label="Document">Document</option>
> >      <option label="Template">Template</option>
> >      <optgroup label="Web Application">
> >        <option label="Web Forms 2.0">Web Forms 2.0</option>
> >        <option label="XForms 2.0">XForms 2.0</option>
> >        <option label="SVG 1.2">SVG 1.2</option>
> >        <option label="XAML">XAML</option>
> >        <option label="XUL">XUL</option>
> >      </optgroup>
> >    </optgroup>
> >    <option label="Open" accesskey="o">Open</option>
> >    <option label="Save" accesskey="s">Save</option>
> >    <option type="menuseparator" disabled>-----</option>
> >    <option label="Exit" accesskey="x">Exit</option>
> > </select>
> >
> 
> I find that the select chrome has always been missing a real "size", an
> attribute for its lenght. In many occassions I've found that the design
> didn't allow a select because the lenght of the longest option was too
> long and had to resort to text input.
> 
> I imagine that adding such an attribute (length?) would control the length
> of the chrome and the browser can expand the dropdown box to fit in the
> longest option in the select. That would make it very versatile. It would
> look something like this.
> 
>    /---- length ---/
>     _________________
>    |_______________|v|______________________________
>    |Please select one of the options offered below |
>    |option 1                                       |
>    |option 2                                       |
>    |option 3 is very long                          |
>    |option 4 is even longer                        |
>    |optionally this could be very convenient       |
>    -------------------------------------------------
> 
> If this is offtopic, please excuse and ignore. If there is a way of
> currently doing this I certainly have not been able to find it.
> 
> Regards,
> 
>    Jose
> 
>