[whatwg] WF2 Widgets UI discussion

[Brian Wilson]

I've been thinking about the new WF2 widgets for quite awhile and all  
along I've
been writing down UI behavior ideas. I figured I could better test Web  
Forms 2
if there were testable UI assertions to use as a reference, just like  
there are
for other aspects of WF2.

It would be nice if there was some sort of common specification for the  
way the
user interface for form elements behaved. There is about 10+ years of  
"inertia"
behind the way current form widgets behave in the desktop environment, so  
their
behavior is fairly interoperable and well understood (although it would be  
nice
as part of this whole exercise to specify the behavior of existing widgets  
as
well)...but, it there is no well-known behavior (yet) for these new  
widgets.

UAs will, of course, be free to innovate, and the WF2 spec itself should  
attempt
to divorce itself from platform details like this. These would just be  
suggested
helpful guidelines for implementors.

I tried to specify as many behaviors as possible that I could think of WRT  
these
widgets. You will please forgive any errors, flow problems, omissions,  
etc. since
much of this was generated via my brainstorming sessions and other  
occasional
musings. I could really use assistance in whipping this into shape. Also,  
there
are many things I am not...one of those being a UI designer, so maybe those
with more knowledge in that area can lend their advice to this endeavor.

Ian has suggested it might be useful to make this effort a separate
document/specification as an adjunct to Webform 2 to assist UA creators.
He also mentioned that it would be useful to give some concrete default
rendering dimension recommendations as well. I've taken a first stab at  
doing
that, but much of it is absolutely arbitrary and subject to your august
scrutiny. =)

I've also written similar documents for the email, number, range and url  
widgets,
but I'll hold off posting them until the group consensus shows that this  
effort
might be worthwhile. I'm hoping that posting this will spur further  
discussion.

*will post the date widget in the next email*

-Brian

-- 
Brian Wilson
Opera Core QA