[Javascript] accessing a <label>

[Scott Reynen]

On Jun 5, 2007, at 6:18 AM, Nick Fitzsimons wrote:

> On 4 Jun 2007, at 01:38:43, Scott Reynen wrote:
>
>> On Jun 3, 2007, at 6:10 PM, Nick Wiltshire wrote:
>>
>>> If the input is directly inside the label (as it should be)
>>
>> Huh?  Why?  That's not how the HTML spec examples use <label>, and  
>> a label containing the input it's labeling strikes me as poor  
>> semantics.
>
> The HTML spec's third example does precisely that:
>
> <http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#edef-LABEL>
>
> as a demonstration of implicit association of a label with a control.

Ah, so it does.  I'd missed that.  Nonetheless, I would still avoid  
that.

> I can't see how this technique can be said to have poor semantics.  
> The semantic significance of a label is that it describes the  
> expected content of an associated control, and this is just an  
> implicit way of forming that association.

A tag name describes the contents of the tag, e.g. everything inside  
a <p> tag is part of a paragraph, everything inside a <table> tag is  
part of a table, etc.  So everything inside a <label> tag should be  
part of a label.  An <input> is not part of a label, so I would call  
an <input> inside a <label> poor semantics, just as I would call non- 
tabular content inside a <table> poor semantics.  But obviously the  
HTML 4 authors disagree with me.

Peace,
Scott