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Bug 13513 - Caution against textarea with wrap=hard
Summary: Caution against textarea with wrap=hard
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LC1 HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Greg Lowney
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-08-02 02:01 UTC by Greg Lowney
Modified: 2013-01-02 14:29 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Greg Lowney 2011-08-02 02:01:38 UTC
The HTML5 spec should include advice to authors that textarea elements should not be use with wrap=hard unless there is significant need. Inserting hard line breaks without the user's knowledge or intent can cause difficulties for users who later try to read the data submitted. 

Use case: Steve has low vision and so has the text size in his browser set quite high, and because the browser window is limited to the width of his screen, he sees short lines of text. He enters a long bug description into a web form, but because the form has been crafted with wrap=hard, the browser inserts hard line breaks before submitting the text. The result is that the bug is entered into the database with hard line breaks every twenty characters. Later, when other users view the bug, they find it incredibly annoying that the text has such short lines and takes up so much vertical space, particularly when printed out. They ask Steve to either stop using his large print settings or stop submitting his own bug reports. (This same problem would occur for users who reduce the size of their browser window in order to make room for assistive technology windows, and for users who run on mobile devices.)

Use case: Beth runs with her browser text slightly enlarged. She is browsing the same bug database, where wrap=hard has caused bug descriptions to have hard line breaks inserted where they wrapped on the submitter's screen, generally every 80 characters. However, since text is slightly larger on Beth's screen, so lines wrap after 70 characters. The result is that every line that appears on the screen for most users is for Beth broken into two lines, the first up to 70 characters and the second up to 10 characters long. This alternation between long and short lines make lengthy text difficult for Beth to read.
Comment 1 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-08-04 05:15:52 UTC
mass-move component to LC1
Comment 2 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-08-16 01:34:41 UTC
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: The first scenario won't happen; wrap=hard is defined as happening at the cols="" width not the submitter screen width. The second scenario will occur regardless of whether the line breaks are inserted on the client or on the server (as they are with Bugzilla).