[whatwg] Safari-compatible <input type="search">

[Andy Lyttle]

On Sep 30, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Kristof Zelechovski wrote:

> I am not against INPUT[type=search]; I am against INPUT[results=10]  
> because
> I cannot see how it can be reasonably preset.

Yeah, that's weird.  I think if I designed it myself, I would have  
made the presence of autosave (instead of results) trigger the  
magnifying glass icon, used a sensible default for the number of  
items in the search history (maybe 10 or 20), used something like  
historylength to override it, and make setting historylength=0  
disable the menu (leaving the icon).  Something like that.  But  
that's not how Apple did it, and we should be compatible with them.

> Is this control for simple search only or is it designed to be used  
> in an
> advanced search interface?  Should it be unique within a form?

Excellent question!  I imagine it should be unique within a form.   
Whether it's appropriate for an advanced search interface would  
depend on the interface; if there's one input that's an obvious  
choice for type="search" then go ahead and use it, otherwise it might  
be better to stick with type="text".

Hopefully someone more qualified than I can provide a better answer.

-- 
Andy Lyttle
whatwg at phroggy.com