[whatwg] Predefined classes are gone

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On May 17, 2007, at 5:43 PM, Lachlan Hunt wrote:

> Ian Hickson wrote:
>> In response to overwhelming feedback on this issue (especially in  
>> blogs, forums, and mailing lists other than this one, like www- 
>> html and public-html) I've removed the predefined classes. They're  
>> opaque again.
>> The main use cases for predefined classes can mostly be dealt with  
>> using some of the new elements. class=note and class=example, for  
>> instance, can instead use <aside> elements, class=copyright can  
>> use <small>, etc.
>
> The use cases for "error", "warning" and "search" aren't yet  
> covered well with other elements.
>
> * class="search"
>
> The aim of this one was to be able to indicate the form  
> specifically used for searching. This would then allow UAs,  
> especially assistive technology, to implement keyboard shortcuts or  
> other mechanisms for taking the user directly to the search form.   
> role="search" is provided by the role attribute spec for a similar  
> purpose, and Safari also has <input type="search">.  I would prefer  
> the new input type because it also has direct benefits for regular  
> users, not just those with assistive technology.
I asked someone from the Safari team to do a quick writeup of <input  
type="search">. Identifying a search field is, I think, even more  
valuable than identifying a search form. (We also have the related  
placeholder="" attribute which it turns out authors want to use on  
more than just search fields.)

Regards,
Maciej