[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 16178] Implementation of inputmode attribute

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16178





------- Comment #2 from mike at w3.org  2009-01-19 20:27 PDT -------
(In reply to comment #1)
> This is part of WF2 spec as well, 19264 depends on this.

Actually, inputmode was part of the WF2 spec, but the WF2 spec is now obsoleted
by the Forms section of the HTML5 draft. See the following:

  http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-forms/current-work/
  "This draft has been superseded by the Forms chapter of the HTML5
specification, which now
   includes many of the features first defined in this document."

And see the Forms section in the HTML5 draft:
  http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/forms.html

So the current status of inputmode in HTML5 is that it's not part of the
language; that is, not only is it not a valid element, it's not recognized at
all in the HTML5 parsing algorithm or anywhere else in the draft.

Of course that doesn't mean it can't be added to HTML5 later, if there's a
compelling case for adding it. The reason it's not in there now is that when
the editor did an evaluation of what parts of WF2 should be integrated into
HTML5, the inputmode attribute didn't make the cut. The rationale was

  - there still do not seem to be any production browsers shipping with
inputmode support
  - but there are a number of mobile browsers shipping with support for the 
-wap-input-format attribute
  - because the main use-case for input-mode-switching is on mobile devices
that only have keypads 
    (not full keyboards) and the -wap-input-format  attribute is already widely
used by
    mobile developers/sites, those developers and sites can just keep using
-wap-input-format
    and don't need the inputmode attribute
  - in discussions (admittedly, limited ones), nobody was able to articulate a
clear use-case for
    inputmode other than on mobile/constrained devices (where -wap-input-format
is used instead),
    so it's not clear what problem would be solved by adding inputmode support
for browsers on other
    devices (e.g., on desktop browsers)

Anyway, that's where were at with it as far as HTML5 goes. Discussions about
whether inputmode should be added to HTML5 should go to the W3C public-html
mailing list or the WHATWG mailing list.


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