[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 23588] Add inputmode attribute support, as per XHTML Basic 1.1

Sat Jul 10 03:40:12 PDT 2010

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23588

--- Comment #19 from Michael(tm) Smith <mike at w3.org>  2010-07-10 03:40:12 PST ---
(In reply to comment #18)
> Should this be implemented at all given that it is not in HTML5?

Also, I don't know of any other deployed UA that actually supports the inputmode attribute.

So, another thing to consider is whether there's actually any existing content (even WAP/mobile-only content) that uses the inputmode attribute. It would seem like there would not be -- since there's no other UA that supports inputmode.

But if this starts shipping in Webkit-based browsers, then it is likely that some content providers will start using it. I think we should be carefully considering whether we want that to happen -- because then other UA vendors will then be expected to add support for it as well, and incur development and testing costs in order to do that. So the question is whether inputmode is important enough that all UA vendors should add support for it.

An important thing to note is that inputmode essentially duplicates functionality that's already provided in most deployed mobile UAs through other means -- chiefly through the "-wap-input-format", which has for better or worse become a de facto standard, and is (as I understand it) already supported in Webkit and in Opera and in all modern WAP browsers.

And the -wap-input-format is already used in a huge amount of existing (mobile-only/mobile-friendly) content. So to some degree, the inputmode is reinventing a wheel in spite of that fact that there's no actually no market need/demand for it to be reinvented.

All that said, I'll concede that I am not really up to date with details of the current market situation around mobile browsers, so it could be that what I have written above no longer applies.

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