On Wed, 14 Jul 2004, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
[color=blue]
> Robert <nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> > I'm reading in the html spec that the INPUT element can have a
> > "ismap" or a "usemap" attribute, and thus that an image map can be
> > associated with a form.[/color]
>
> Formally, those attributes are allowed.[/color]
Indeed, so it seems to be, and I don't recall this puzzle being raised
before. What do we suppose the drafters of HTML4 had in mind?
Usually these attributes are used on imagemaps in the sense of
http://www.ihip.com/ , or indeed of my page at
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/www/imgmaptut.html or your own
well-reputed HTML tutorials.
[color=blue]
> There's no definition of their
> meaning in this context, as far as I can see.[/color]
So it seems. I was reluctant to respond to this thread - thinking
perhaps that I'd missed some important point - and I'm comforted by
the fact that you seem to have no better answer than I would have
offered :-}
[color=blue]
> It is difficult to see what "ismap" could possibly mean unless the INPUT
> element has type="image", and in that case, by definition, the image
> button acts as an image map of a kind anyway: when the form is submitted,
> the coordinates of the clicked location are passed in the form data.[/color]
indeed.
[color=blue]
> The only natural definition for "ismap" here would be the same,
> wouldn't it?[/color]
Well, they don't quite submit the same data, do they?; but the end
result seems to be similar - aside from the fact that a <form>
includes other parameters in its submission.
[color=blue]
> Regarding "usemap", partly similar considerations apply. If the element
> does not have type="image", what image could it possibly be the map's
> image? And if it has, then the button effectively acts as a server side
> image map anyway. Should a browser override this and use a client side
> image map instead, as defined by the MAP element referred to? Hardly.[/color]
I'm as puzzled by this as you seem to be. What -did- they have in
mind? Furthermore, why -hasn't- this come up before??? HTML4 isn't
exactly new, but somehow, bits of it seem to emerge long after the
main event!
A google search reveals - well, to be honest it reveals:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/401.dtd
That happens to me occasionally too :-}
So where to we go from here?
Imagemaps in forms? <input usemap=...> 
