[whatwg] native styling for search input boxes

[Kristof Zelechovski]

Please give some examples how the special status of a search field can be
used by user agents, presentation aside.  
(I am not trying to challenge Matthew's argument, I am just interested).
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org
[mailto:whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org] On Behalf Of Maciej Stachowiak
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 6:58 PM
To: Nils Dagsson Moskopp
Cc: whatwg
Subject: Re: [whatwg] native styling for search input boxes


On Oct 1, 2008, at 12:31 AM, Nils Dagsson Moskopp wrote:

> the look of the input field could be styled just by a value of  
> "search"
> for the CSS "appearance". that would have to go through CSS3 WG, but
> would probabvy be the cleanest approach.
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-ui/#system
>
> (i hope this puts an end to input styling discussions)

The status of being a search field is semantic, not just  
presentational. User agents and assistive technologies could use the  
knowledge that a field is a search field in all sorts of helpful ways.  
Indeed, the semantics would be useful even without the special  
presentation, but the special presentation gives authors an extra  
incentive to get it right.

Regards,
Maciej