[whatwg] Accesskey in Web Forms 2

[Derek Featherstone]

On 28 Aug 2004, Ian Hickson <mailto:ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
>
> Say you're writing a game (www.voidwars.com, for instance).
> You want a shortcut for "show minimap", a shortcut for "just to research
> screen", a shortcut for "select next scout ship with no orders".
> 
> How would the access attribute help?

Actually, I think this would be a great case for where the access attribute
would be very useful. With current implementation of accesskey, the author
defines which access points are important (by adding an accesskey attribute)
and defines which key should be used (by specifying the accesskey value).
Neither the accesskey or the access points can be overridden.

In most games that I've played, there is a default keystroke for a specific
action/behaviour, but you have the ability to override those and set them to
your preferred keystroke. The author might suggest that "M" might be used
for "Show Minimap", but the user could override that to use "P" for "Show
Minimap", if they wanted.

Continuing with your game example then, the access attribute (as seen in
XHTML 2.0), would let authors define the access points (show minimap,
research screen, select next scout ship, etc), as well as provide a list of
suggested keystrokes for those access points as well as allow them to be
overridden. I'd suggest they might provide some type of link relationship
pointing to a file that maps suggested keys to the access points in the
document|page|application. If the user overrides them, the User Agent reads
the local file rather than remote file specified in the link relationship.

I know this doesn't really address issues of backward compatibility, but I
do think the example you provided (i.e., a game) is a perfect example of
where it could be useful.

Best regards,
Derek.
-- 
Derek Featherstone     feather at wats.ca
phone: 613.599.9784;   toll-free: 1.866.932.4878 (North America)
Web Development: http://www.furtherahead.com
Web Accessibility:  http://www.wats.ca
Personal: http://www.boxofchocolates.ca