I've looked at lists from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It's HTML lists' illusions I recall
I really don't know HTML lists at all
This was a fun little read. Just through testing the examples, I also learned datalist does not seem to work well on mobile safari (which is a large enough market I might even say there’s essentially no scenario in which it’s worth using if there’s a compatibility issue).
When I first had to use XML, I had to learn the XML spec and output it manually - serialization libraries didn’t really exist yet. I’ve since seen generation of juniors come up through the ranks using XML as an interchange format (and then JSON) without ever learning it fully. It was fine, and nothing terrible happened.
I’ve seen AJAX go from the hot new thing to people not knowing what it stood for, to now most people not even recognizing the term. AJAX didn’t die; it became so common we don’t need a word for it anymore.
>What if there’s a bunch of options, but for [reasons] we don’t want a user to be able to select a subset of them? Let’s add the disabled attribute to an optgroup
Seems broken in mobile safari, not actually disabled I can still select the disabled items.
Came here to mention the same thing. Very well be on me, tho. I’m using the Brave browser (is it safari-powered?) and on iOS 18.7.9, which is the newest my old iPhone X supports.
Good stuff, except don't get too excited about `datalist`. It just doesn't have enough hooks to be actually useful for anything other than a little prototype.
HTML linters actually help distinguish things like that? I'm curious if there are any linters out there that can enforce this kind of semantic tag selection.
SuperHTML validates not only syntax but also element nesting and attribute values. No other language server implements the full HTML spec in its validation code.
And yet, no native select + search combined, which is a very common kind of list. The datalist is basically unusable, because you don't know any of the options.
tl;dr: You _do_ know HTML lists, they're basicaly like they used to be 20 years ago. But there are HTML form controls which are list-like and this will tell you about them: <select> and <datalist> which have <option> elements and <menu> which has <li> elements.
It's a nice read, not very long and you can kind of leisurely skim it.
Title reminds me of Joni Mitchell.
I thought of the 2000 version first which made this much funnier in my head
This was a fun little read. Just through testing the examples, I also learned datalist does not seem to work well on mobile safari (which is a large enough market I might even say there’s essentially no scenario in which it’s worth using if there’s a compatibility issue).
Way back when I was working my first job, datalist didn’t work on Firefox. That’s what got Firefox removed from the list of supported browsers.
It has been a problem for a long time if you want to support anything other than Chrome.
> It has been a problem for a long time if you want to support anything other than Chrome.
That's partially because Chrome keeps adopting standards nobody else wants to support.
Both things can be true. Chrome supports a bunch of non standard APIs but it also has some of the best coverage of standard APIs.
They work well but not with GBoard on iOS.
this was a dope & comprehensive.
unfortunately we have a new class of dev's that never learned html but went straight for React. Now with LLMs they will never learn HTML.
hence they reach for react components where simple html would have been sufficient.
I think that’s OK.
When I first had to use XML, I had to learn the XML spec and output it manually - serialization libraries didn’t really exist yet. I’ve since seen generation of juniors come up through the ranks using XML as an interchange format (and then JSON) without ever learning it fully. It was fine, and nothing terrible happened.
I’ve seen AJAX go from the hot new thing to people not knowing what it stood for, to now most people not even recognizing the term. AJAX didn’t die; it became so common we don’t need a word for it anymore.
>What if there’s a bunch of options, but for [reasons] we don’t want a user to be able to select a subset of them? Let’s add the disabled attribute to an optgroup
Seems broken in mobile safari, not actually disabled I can still select the disabled items.
Not broken, but strange since it should be working on latest Safari.
https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_optgroup_disabled
I think it may be a Safari bug.
Your link states it's not supported in iOS Safari at all, even though it has been supported in macOS Safari since 2013.
Came here to mention the same thing. Very well be on me, tho. I’m using the Brave browser (is it safari-powered?) and on iOS 18.7.9, which is the newest my old iPhone X supports.
I think on iphone everything is safari powered(?)
Also doesnt work for me on iPhone Firefox
Good stuff, except don't get too excited about `datalist`. It just doesn't have enough hooks to be actually useful for anything other than a little prototype.
I think I’ve tried building a combobox using datalist once but it didn’t work
As you learn more about “raw” html you find all sorts of very fun things that are - ah - not very well implemented if at all.
HTML linters actually help distinguish things like that? I'm curious if there are any linters out there that can enforce this kind of semantic tag selection.
Cloests thing I know of is https://github.com/kristoff-it/superhtml#diagnostics
Lots of useful information I wasn't aware of after being a front-end lead for years. I'll start using these at work for sure.
This is how real HTML magic should look like:
<MARQUEE>
</MARQUEE>blink wont work, but marquee will
Not with that attitude:
What version of Macromedia Dreamweaver did you use to make this?
people who use css are not welcome here.
It’s OK if it’s a polyfill.
Wait, not far enough back…
It’s OK if it’s a shim.
<MARK>FTFY</MARK>
And yet, no native select + search combined, which is a very common kind of list. The datalist is basically unusable, because you don't know any of the options.
What I always wanted to know about lists and never dared to ask!
tl;dr: You _do_ know HTML lists, they're basicaly like they used to be 20 years ago. But there are HTML form controls which are list-like and this will tell you about them: <select> and <datalist> which have <option> elements and <menu> which has <li> elements.
It's a nice read, not very long and you can kind of leisurely skim it.
That’s a really good article. It’s nice to see something which isn’t slop.