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Bug 13520 - Drag and Drop without a pointing device
Summary: Drag and Drop without a pointing device
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LC1 HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ian 'Hixie' Hickson
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-08-02 11:56 UTC by Andrew Kirkpatrick
Modified: 2011-12-03 00:08 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Andrew Kirkpatrick 2011-08-02 11:56:09 UTC
at http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-html5-20110525/dnd.html#dnd
The Drag and Drop description around pointing devices is too restrictive and suggests that browsers only need to support non-mouse operations on devices without a mouse.  This functionality needs to be available for obligatory keyboard users even on systems that support a mouse.

Current:
7.7 Drag and Drop: On media without a pointing device, the user would probably have to explicitly indicate his intention to perform a drag-and-drop operation, stating what he wishes to drag and where he wishes to drop it, respectively.

Recommend change to:
Drag and drop operations must be able to be accomplished without a pointing device.   The user would probably have to explicitly indicate his intention to perform a drag-and-drop operation, stating what he wishes to drag and where he wishes to drop it, respectively.
Comment 1 Anne 2011-08-02 12:09:23 UTC
It says media, not devices, but I agree it could be made somewhat clearer.
Comment 2 Andrew Kirkpatrick 2011-08-02 12:28:21 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> It says media, not devices, but I agree it could be made somewhat clearer.

Fair enough, but that is part of what doesn't make sense.  On media without a pointing device?  Media doesn't have any kind of device does it?
Comment 3 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-08-04 05:00:36 UTC
mass-moved component to LC1
Comment 4 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-08-09 22:13:50 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: Accepted
Change Description: see diff given below
Rationale: Concurred with reporter's comments.
Comment 5 contributor 2011-08-09 22:14:03 UTC
Checked in as WHATWG revision r6390.
Check-in comment: clarification
http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=6389&to=6390
Comment 6 Marco Ranon 2011-11-15 11:27:16 UTC
Andrew, can you confirm that you are happy with the changes? Thanks (in behalf of the a11y bug triage sub-team).
Comment 7 Andrew Kirkpatrick 2011-11-15 14:33:16 UTC
I think that there is a need to be very clear that drag and drop needs to support non-mouse operations.  I can accept the ambiguity of the phrases like "The user would probably have to explicitly indicate his intention to perform a drag-and-drop operation" as long as the support for keyboard users to complete the task is plainly stated.  

I'd like to see some form of my suggested first sentence included: "Drag and drop operations must be able to be accomplished without a pointing device."  This "must" makes it clear.  In the current version the word "probably" weakens the requirement, or at least muddies it.
Comment 8 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-11-21 03:46:08 UTC
Hixie, please see Andrew Kirkpatrick's comment #7:
> I think that there is a need to be very clear that drag and drop needs to
> support non-mouse operations.  I can accept the ambiguity of the phrases like
> "The user would probably have to explicitly indicate his intention to perform a
> drag-and-drop operation" as long as the support for keyboard users to complete
> the task is plainly stated.  
> 
> I'd like to see some form of my suggested first sentence included: "Drag and
> drop operations must be able to be accomplished without a pointing device." 
> This "must" makes it clear.  In the current version the word "probably" weakens
> the requirement, or at least muddies it.
Comment 9 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-12-03 00:08:43 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: We're never going to have a "must" here. What if the user agent is running on a computer whose sole input device is a mouse?

The spec is painfully clear that drag-and-drop doesn't mean mouse interaction.