Jukka K. Korpela wrote:[color=blue]
> VK wrote:
>[color=green]
> > Textarea has wrap attribute set to "logical" ("soft" by IE) by default,[/color][/color]
That was my mistake: the set is "physical", *** virtual *** and "off".
I mistyped it because I must was thinking of total absence of logic in
this situation :-)
[color=blue]
> The textarea element has no wrap attribute according to the HTML
> specifications. Browsers generally recognize such an attribute, but
> information about "logical" as a value is outdated. The currently
> recognized values are "soft", "hard", and "off".[/color]
Sorry again for "logical" instead of proper "virtual". HTML perfectly
has wrap attribute since Netscape 3 at least. It is not presented
though in W3C DTD's which is a serious problem of W3C but not of the
web community as such.
[color=blue]
> There is of course no defined default for an attribute that is not
> defined in the specifications.[/color]
Of course you checked it, did you? For 90% of current UA's it is set to
"soft" by default, the rest is hiding the same setting from sensitive
eyes of W3C :-)
[color=blue]
> Most browsers actually behave as if
> wrap="soft" had been given, but there is some variation in what this
> means. This is not surprising, since there is no published specification
> of what it means. Actually, the specifications more or less say that no
> wrapping take place, since the idea is that the user can type
> arbitrarily long lines. See
>
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/textarea.html
> for some explanations.
>[color=green]
> > so strings will be wrapped after reaching the opposite border, but only
> > manually typed Enter's will be submitted.[/color]
>
> More or less so, but there's a difference between IE and Firefox: if
> there is a "word" (sequence of characters not containing whitespace
> characters) that is longer than the textarea width, IE breaks the "word"
> visually, whereas Firefox introduces horizontal scrolling. I don't think
> there's a way to change the Firefox behavior (which corresponds to the
> specifications better than the IE behavior).
>
> To see what this means, test this on your browsers:
>
> <textarea rows=3 cols=12>
> supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
> </textarea>[/color]
You are repeating the same mistake as 7 years ago - wrap attribute
doesn't set a *representation mode* - though it affects on it directly.
wrap attribute governes submission process of teaxtarea data. You
really should read old Netscape specs and consult with experienced
server admins. ;-) It is currently broken on some browsers in the
submission part, though the representation reflection is still working.
And I see W3C to blame for that because for 7 years no one reasonnable
browser producer could drop this attribute. So even the "standards
followers" had to implement it:- but in kind of conspiracy situation,
bootlegging it on the backyard.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > P.S. This attribute is missing in W3C DTD's by mistake[/color]
>
> Please don't try to rewrite history. It was no mistake. Read the actual
> specifications to learn how textarea was meant to work. Wrapping was
> later invented by browser vendors and implemented inconsistently and
> confusingly, as it still is.[/color]
I was using wrap attribute since Netscape 3.0 Gold and never stopped to
do it - with necessary discrepancies adjustments over time. And no
offence but in the year 1999 W3C's activity was rather out of intensive
public interest. It was more important to know and remember all new
features and bugs in NN and IE. But coming back to "rewrite history":-
"I don't like it so it never existed and never will exist" - is an
exact case of trying to rewrite the history. And the lesson W3C may get
out of it is that no one can ignore the reality - but reality can
easily ignore anyone.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > Nevertheless it is supported by all ever
> > existed browsers.[/color]
>
> Any statements about "all browsers" tend to tell about the limited
> experience of the person who makes the statement rather than the reality
> around us.[/color]
Read about reality above.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > the original Netscape set "logical", "physical" and
> > "off" has better cross-browser support, especially for legacy platforms.[/color]
>
> You didn't bother actually testing such matters, did you?[/color]
I'm not testing - I'm using. W3C could facilitate the usage greatly by
finally sticking to one of de-facto standards and requiring the same
from all players (of whom willing to listen W3C).
