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by benjaminjosephw 1536 days ago
I think the thing to remember here is that inputs should only be `type=number` where the semantic value is best represented with a numeric scale, not just where it is a number only field.

> A simple way of determining whether to use type=number is to consider whether it would make sense for the input control to have a spinbox interface (e.g. with "up" and "down" arrows). Getting a credit card number wrong by 1 in the last digit isn't a minor mistake, it's as wrong as getting every digit incorrect. So it would not make sense for the user to select a credit card number using "up" and "down" buttons.

I don't think browsers can infer the semantic intent enough for this to be a fixable problem without some distinction in syntax.
2 comments
danuker 1536 days ago
> e.g. with "up" and "down" arrows

I never used those except for testing to see what they do. They are always useless to me.

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Cthulhu_ 1536 days ago
Depending on browser, they can be used with a scroll wheel as well. And of course, on mobile they will have different UI elements. But yeah I don't get the tiny up/down arrows either.
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danuker 1535 days ago
> with a scroll wheel as well

This happens to me accidentally while scrolling. Then I order the wrong quantity and such.

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Cthulhu_ 1536 days ago
Yeah exactly, a phone number or credit card number may look like a number, but they're not. input type number will also discard leading zeroes, for example.

That said, I feel like the organizations behind HTML gave up too fast; they should have continued with input types for phone numbers (that e.g. phone manufacturers could then integrate with contacts without revealing anything to the website in question), credit card numbers (supporting all formats and with built-in format validation), etc. But they seem to have stopped 10+ years ago with HTML5's broken number input.

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avereveard 1535 days ago
Enumerating types might be cool for semantic web, but what I'd love as a dev is a system for enumerating valid characters, so I can put digits and dashes, or only Latin letters, and the device figures out the best keyboard to use
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