Hello Mike,
Mike at Green-Beast.com schreef:
If one tries hard enough, it seems anything can be considered a list of
sorts.
That might be true, but I hope you will agree that it's easier to
consider a form being a list than a whole page.
A form is a list of controls and their related inputs, but we wouldn't use a
list to organize form controls, so we'd use fieldsets/legends, labels and
inputs. Using the Q&A scenario which you might use to try and justify the
use of a DL to organize a form, let's swap out the elements with their
appropriate ones (which need to be used anyway).
DL = Fieldset
?? = Legend
DT = Label (the "Q")
DD = Input (the "A")
I didn't say I use <dl>s instead of <fieldset>s. I use them too if
needed, although I'm not a big fan of <legend> (from a layout point of
view this must be the most annoying element).
Btw, in some cases the <label> is not the 'Q' but the 'A', as with
checkboxes and radio buttons. And I think that originally <legend>s were
meant to replace the 'Q'-<label> in these cases.
It seems to me the form has everything we need to properly organize it. Once
it's made we can add then a few styles and layout rules with CSS to make it
look good.
But in most cases not as good as the designer whose designs I'll have to
translate into templates wants it. Sometimes you just have not enough
hooks for CSS or you'll have to add extra elements in order to make
clear snippets that can be reused within the system of the site. And
even though we would all like to create websites that use no more than
the necessary semantic elements, I'm sure you're familiar with this
problem if you work with designs that are not yours or for customers
that want don't want an archaic form layout.
And if you do need another element then I'd say a <dl> comes very close
to the semantic structure of a form because of this Q&A thing.
See a real (somewhat styled) example: http://green-beast.com/gbcf/ (Demo
Form)
Using this is satifies all of the needs of users and spec requirements. No
definition list necessary or needed.
Your demo form is a wonderful example of a web standards compliant and
accessible form (although I think that placing the label text before the
field instead of above makes it even more accessible for the avarage
visitor, especcially if the form tends to be long), but it also has this
basic layout. Which is fine, but not always what is requested.
<!-- slightly off topic: if I may make a suggestion concerning
usability: why not have JavaScript, if supported, answer and hide the
anti-spam question? That way a lot of people won't be bothered with it
:-) -->
I certainly wasn't trying to make a case
for using a list, any list, for a form.
I know and you are forgiven ;-)
Cheers.
Sander
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