Boris Zbarsky schrieb:
Antti Koivisto wrote:
I'd like to propose a new <input> type attribute value for phone
numbers (<input type="phonenumber"> perhaps). The primary benefit
would be to enable use of phone number specific input methods (for
example a virtual keyboard) and pickers (for example a system address
book). A useful minimal implementation could limit the allowed
characters to those legal in phone numbers (+ * # and 0-9).
A brief look around shows the following characters also commonly used in
phone numbers as people actually type them in the US: ' ' (ascii space),
'.', '-', 'x' (this last in cases like "1-800-123-4567 x235").
This last case in particular is one I would suspect involves a good bit
of regional variability; I doubt the Latin lowercase 'x' is used
throughout the world to denote extensions.
There are more issues like this - vanity numbers with letters a-zA-Z
seem to be popular in the USA, while they are marginal here in the
German speaking countries. Also, the separation of phone numbers into
blocks and the block separation character(s) are subject to regional
differencies, and several formats might be considered as valid in the
same region.
Here in Switzerland, these formats are quite common:
+41 (0)12 345 67 89
+41 12 345 67 89
012 345 67 89
012 345 6 345
In private use you find more variants, e.g.:
012-345'67'89
012/345'67'89
012 345/67/89
You will find other formats in other countries. I have no idea what
people type in Japan or Sri Lanka.
So, while e-mail addresses have a strictly defined format, this does not
apply to phone numbers. Internationalisation would be necessary to
validate them, and still it would be a hard task, as complete sets of
valid formats might not be available for every country.
