[thelist] clear form code

Matt Warden mwarden at gmail.com
Mon Mar 20 14:47:44 CST 2006


On 3/20/06, Luther, Ron <Ron.Luther at hp.com> wrote:
> Okay. So how would this page be built then?  Make a hidden 'none
> selected' radio button
> with a JS onsubmit trap to colourize the selections in a bold red font
> if they try to
> submit without selecting a different radio button?  (Backend trapping to
> handle the
> same for users with JS off.)
>
> That might satisfy the 'letter of the spec' but it would still appear,
> functionally,
> to the end users as a radio button set with no default selection.

That's exactly my point. My point was demonstrating the lengths you
would have to go to make what you want work with radio buttons.

It's not a "letter of the spec" issue. It's an issue of making your
client happy, which is not possible with radio buttons without a hack
like you describe above or without relying on how a subset of user
agents seem to handle this particular error case today.

> [And if I'm in an Intranet setting with a homogeneous browser base where
> the
> functionality works as expected, I can be 'lazy' and use simple radio
> buttons
> with no default selection to let employees cast 'votes' for a 'photo of
> the month'
> type application.]

Alright. And if I write my own browser, I can make an <img> tag act
like a <div> tag.

Or I could just comply with the standard, with no additional effort,
and save my client money in the long run.

> I think there are a lot of 'voting' and/or 'survey' and/or 'testing'
> applications
> where a radio button set with no default makes sense.

It only makes sense if you can guarantee that all user agents that
will ever be used in the system will leave all radio buttons in the
group unselected.

--
Matt Warden
Miami University
Oxford, OH, USA
http://mattwarden.com


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