Re: <select>

Matthew MacDonald - FES ~ (mmacdona@pcocd2.intel.com)
Wed, 12 Apr 95 19:16:38 EDT

> > > > i.e. popup pull right menus?
> > > > e.g.
> > > > <select>
> > > > <option>ice cream<select>
> > > > <option>chocolate
> > > > <option>vanilla<select>
> > <option>plain
> > <option>french
> > </select>
> > > > <option>strawberry
> > </select>
> > > > <option>cake<select>
> > > > <option>pound
> > > > <option>devil's food
> > </select>
> > > > <option>soda
> > > > </select>
>
> This doesn't look too bad. I like the idea of having one <select> rather
> than <select2> etc... the nesting can be implicit. However, there may be
> an SGML reason why not to force the parser to discern that tags are nested.
> We were just discussing SGML compliance issues in HTML, someone care to
> comment ?
>
> > > > Believe it or not I have a real need to implement a set of nested
choices
> > > > in a form that cannot be done any other way.
>
> Uh oh, more stuff that 'cannot be done any other way'. There is always a
way.
> Maybe not the most convenient, but always a way.
>

The problem here isn't so much you "can't do it any other way" (you can. In my
case
by offering the customer several hundred distinct choices in one <select> list.
None of which
the customer would understand. And the customer could still pick the wrong one
for their
particular case) as it is forcing the user to make explicit choices while going
down tree branch by branch.

I could implement something with radio buttons but you can only enforce unique
choices in one layer and not from one layer to the next.

In the example above if it were done with nested radio buttons I could force
the user to choose
a unique choice between cake, ice cream, or soda and between chocolate,
vanilla, strawberry BUT
I could not stop the user from picking soda - chocolate- french.

> > > > Is this a difficult thing to do? nobody has given me an answer to this
one
> > > > and it seems like such a common task.
>
> I don't know if it's difficult. It may be difficult to do in a way that is
> SGML compliant. You are getting dangerously close to requiring very specific
> presentation capabilities that are beyond the ability of certain user
interface
> paradigms... I don't think you're over that line yet but you're close. I
still
> think HTML has a hope of being comprehensible by programs running in text
mode
> on 286s (lynx is still very useful to me), so I am wary of such proposals.

No offense, but what's a 286? :) I mean, I'm all for "backward compatability"
but at some point
isn't it better to say we aren't going to support something rather than hamper
our ability to
progress?
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> Craig Hubley Business that runs on knowledge
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