[whatwg] including <output> in form submissions

[Jukka K. Korpela]

2012-02-22 19:30, Cameron Jones wrote:

> Updating<output>  as form submittable element is included in a
> proposal to enhance http request processing under a w3c issue

This sounds like a pointless attempt at enhancing a pointless element.

Instead of <output>, authors can use, and have been able to use since 
rather early days, <input> if the data is to be submitted as part of 
form data, and any non-form-field element, like <div>, otherwise. (Well, 
in the very early days, it had to be <input> anyway, but that was long ago.)

<output> is just for looking semantic for semantics' sake. There is 
nothing illogical in using <input> for data that is generated (not 
directly user-supplied) client-side. It's input to form handlers, 
client-side or server-side, anyway.

And there's nothing particularly semantic (i.e., as relating to meaning) 
about saying that some content is the output of some calculation. If a 
value is 42, its being in <output> does not indicate its meaning in any way.

<output> has _some_ effects: it confuses authors, if they wish to be 
serious about new specifications.

So please drop <output>.

Yucca