lynx-dev TEXTAREA (was Re: LYNX-DEV Using Lynx woth web "forums")

[Howard Kaikow]

What is the status of the fix to the TEXTAREA?

At 08:00 AM 3/28/1998 -0500, Howard Kaikow wrote:
>The following is from the 28 March 1995 draft of HTML 3. It states that the
>number of rows "should" not limit the text entered.
>
>TEXTAREA
>
>   To let users enter more than one line of text, use the TEXTAREA
>   element. For example: 
>
>   <TEXTAREA NAME="address" ROWS=64 COLS=6>
>   HaL Computer Systems
>   1315 Dell Avenue
>   Campbell, California 95008
>   </TEXTAREA>
>   
>
>   The text up to the end tag is used to initialize the field's value.
>   The initialization text can contain SGML entities, e.g. for accented
>   characters, but is otherwise treated as literal text. This end tag
>   is always required even if the field is initially blank. When
>   submitting a form, the line terminators are implementation
>   dependent. Servers should be capable of recognizing a CR immediately
>   followed by an LF, or separate CRs and LFs as all signifying the
>   ends of lines. User agents should tolerate the same range of line
>   terminators within the initialization text. 
>
>   In a typical rendering, the ROWS and COLS attributes determine the
>   visible dimension of the field in characters. The field is rendered
>   in a fixed-width font. User agents should allow text to grow beyond
>   these limits by scrolling as needed. The user agent is recommended
>   to wrap words as they are entered, to fit within the textarea field.
>   It is further recommended that a means is provided for users to turn
>   this feature off and on. 
>
>   Note: In the initial design for forms, multi-line text fields were
>   supported by the INPUT element with TYPE=TEXT. Unfortunately, this
>   causes problems for fields with long text values as SGML limits the
>   length of attribute literals. The HTML 2.0 DTD allows for up to 1024
>   characters (the SGML default is only 240 characters). 
>
>Permitted Attributes
>
>   ID 
>       An SGML identifier used as the target for hypertext links or for
>       naming particular elements in associated style sheets.
>       Identifiers are NAME tokens and must be unique within the scope
>       of the current document. 
>
>   LANG 
>       This is one of the ISO standard language abbreviations, e.g.
>       "en.uk" for the variation of English spoken in the United
>       Kingdom. It can be used by parsers to select language specific
>
>Dave Raggett                                                          Page
133
>HTML 3.0                                                       28th March
1995
>
>       choices for quotation marks, ligatures and hypenation rules etc.
>       The language attribute is composed from the two letter language
>       code from ISO 639, optionally followed by a period and a two
>       letter country code from ISO 3166. 
>
>   CLASS 
>       This a space separated list of SGML NAME tokens and is used to
>       subclass tag names. By convention, the class names are
>       interpreted hierarchically, with the most general class on the
>       left and the most specific on the right, where classes are
>       separated by a period. The CLASS attribute is most commonly used
>       to attach a different style to some element, but it is
>       recommended that where practical class names should be picked on
>       the basis of the element's semantics, as this will permit other
>       uses, such as restricting search through documents by matching
>       on element class names. The conventions for choosing class names
>       are outside the scope of this specification. 
>
>   NAME 
>       The formal name of the field which is used in the form's
>       contents list. 
>
>   ROWS 
>       This gives the visible number of text lines shown by the field.
>       User agents should allow text to grow beyond these limits by
>       scrolling as needed. 
>
>   COLS 
>       The visible number of characters across the field. User agents
>       should allow text to grow beyond these limits by scrolling as
>       needed. 
>
>   DISABLED
>       When present, the field should be rendered as normal, but can't
>       be modified by the user. Where practical the rendering should
>       provide a cue that the field is disabled e.g. by graying out the
>       text, changing the color of the background or similar. 
>
>   ERROR
>       This attribute specifies an error message explaining why the
>       field's current value is incorrect. When this attribute is
>       missing, the field can be assumed to be ok. User agents are
>       recommended to provide a cue to indicate that the field is in
>       error. 
>
>   ALIGN 
>       Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining whether the top or
>       middle or bottom row of the field should be aligned with the
>       baseline for the text line in which the TEXTAREA element
>       appears. The default is align=top. 
>
>       With ALIGN=LEFT, the field will float down and over to the
>       current left margin, and subsequent text will wrap around the
>
>Dave Raggett                                                          Page
134
>HTML 3.0                                                       28th March
1995
>
>       right hand side of the field. Likewise for ALIGN=RIGHT, the
>       field aligns with the current right margin and, and text wraps
>       around the left. 
>
>
>
>
>At 12:55 AM 3/28/1998 +0000, David Woolley wrote:
>>> >
>>> >Apparently some buffer is overflowing and the charaacters are getting
sent
>>> >to Lynx commands.
>>
>>Based on a fifteen minute look at the code, Lynx 2.7.2 violates the
>>July draft of HTML 4.0.  What I think it is doing is converting textarea
>>into a series of text field internally and then re-assembling them when
>>it submits the form.  As a result it can't scroll vertically.  The
>>HTML 4.0 draft I have in hard copy says that neither the number of
>>rows nor columns should limit the amount of data entered.
>>
>>The problem then arises for Lynx of:  how do you get out of the text area.
>>At the moment an excess CR or downarrow will do this, but if you make it
>>scrollable, you need another way out.
>>
>>However, I would say you are using the wrong approach if you try and
>>manipulate the screen; you should be using -post_data on the command
>>line.
>>
>>> ><P><FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://www.wopr.com/lounge/index.cgi?post";>
>>
>>That parameter set should be compatible with -post_data; you just have
>>to remember to URL encode everything.
>>
>>> >spaces)<br><STRONG>Message:</STRONG><BR><TEXTAREA COLS=60 ROWS=5
>>> >NAME="body" WRAP=VIRTUAL>
>>               ^^^^   This parameter doesn't appear to exist in HTML 4.0
>>                      unless it is a core attribute, which I doubt.
>>
>>
>
>