[whatwg] Form input element for value-unit pairs

[Diogo Resende]

 This is just a numeric input. It has a unit, just like a monetary 
 value, but besides that it's just a number. Maybe a numeric input should 
 have some type of formatting to proper show the unit (prefix/suffix, 
 decimals places, decimal sep., ...).

 On Sat, 5 Mar 2011 18:26:52 +0100, Christoph Päper wrote:
> Imagine a richt text processor done in HTML5. If you want to select
> the font size (of a template or class, of course) how would you do 
> it?
>
>
> Standalone word processors usually have a combo field that lets the
> user enter a number
>
>   [12]
>
> possibly adding controls for increasng and decreasing
>
>   [12]±    [12]↕
>
> or they may allow the user to select one of the predefined
> recommended or frequent values.
>
>   [12 ↓]
>
> These are commonly using, without explicitly mentioning it, the magic
> unit ‘point’, which users usually don’t know, especially if they’re
> not from the US and are not trained typographers.
>
> In other places, software interface designers honor the variety of
> absolute and relative (length) units by introducing a widget that
> bears the number and the unit symbol,
>
>   [12 pt]±
>
> which can both be changed, although not independently.
>
> ‘pt’→‘px’ ⇒ [12 px]  not  [16 px]
>
> Some implementations are even broken in that they accept many unit
> symbols, but always autoconvert (and round) to a preferred unit.
>
>   [4 mm] → [11.34 pt]
>
> Thus, would it make sense to add another new type for the ‘input’ 
> element?