[thelist] clear form code

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Mon Mar 20 14:32:39 CST 2006


Matt Warden noted:


>>The bottom line is that the spec says it's not valid usage, and
further warns that 
>>user agents handle the misuse in various ways. If you need a "nothing
selected" option, 
>>it doesn't seem like radio buttons are the way to go.


Hi Matt,

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.  

Tow-may-toe, Tow-mah-toe.


RonL.

[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.]

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 and where a visible
"none yet 
selected" option is just ugly and rather pointless UI.



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