I reckon this discussion is relevant here too. The one I'm struggling with at the moment is a form with Select Gender M / F. It's a government web site so I'm trying to be careful.
Checkboxes are inappropriate. I could use a <select> with M and F but then what for "unspecified" or "don't want to answer" or "I just ignored that question"? Also, whatever is chosen takes 2 clicks. Unchecked radio buttons are a very usable choice, you hit one or the other or neither and move on. Mike said "...it is sometimes invalid communications/user interface to have one and only one 'checked' item at all times. I said, and still hold to the view, that sometimes a form has to be presented with none of the radio buttons 'checked'". I agree. The standard (the HTML spec) says that's OK, and that's how we want it to work for usability. All good. But RFC1866 says the user agent should make the choice - "user agent must check the first radio button of the set initially". So some standards-compliant browser is going to over-ride my standards-compliant form and check one of the radio buttons? Isn't this a conflict between the standards for UI and User Agent? -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Horner Sent: Wednesday, 2 February 2005 5:25 p.m. To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WSG] Default state of radio buttons. (Maybe OT?) >That's the relevance to standards - i.e. that if it's only standard if >there is a default radio button and never valid if none of them are >'checked' then the standard is wrong and ought to be changed. I heartily agree, Mike. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Have You Validated Your Code?" John Horner (+612 / 02) 9333 3488 Senior Developer, ABC Online http://www.abc.net.au/ ------------------------------------------------------------ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ****************************************************** ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
