[whatwg] Please consider adding a couple more datetime <input> types - type="year" and type="month-day"

[Kit Grose]

On 09/08/2010, at 11:49 AM, Jonathan Castello wrote:

> Couldn't the BC/AD case be handled intuitively by a dropdown right
> next to the year field that contains those two options?


Do you consider your own birth year to be, e.g., "1970 AD"? Why stop there—do we need to also distinguish between Gregorian and Julian calendars?

Doesn't it feel like a system for the edge cases at the expense of the majority of users?


On 09/08/2010, at 11:07 AM, Tantek Çelik wrote:

>> Jakob Nielsen's testing has shown that forcing users to enter dates using drop-down menus (or any other non-textual input) is a mistake: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001112.html
> 
> This feedback is perhaps relevant to/if a browser (that) implements a
> drop-down menu control for dates - nothing in this proposal suggests a
> drop-down menu.

That's not what the article says; it says *any* control that requires entry via the mouse (including calendars, drop-downs, sliders, etc.) as opposed to a naked text field hinders usability.

Users can enter "1925" as numerals into a text field much quicker than any visual date picker can permit.

—Kit