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Re: LYNX-DEV Using Lynx woth web "forums"


From: Howard Kaikow
Subject: Re: LYNX-DEV Using Lynx woth web "forums"
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 08:00:17 -0500

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.
>
>

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