[troupo]

About two years year before <dialog> was rushed into all browsers, it had been implemented only in Chrome, and Chrome devs suggested removal of <dialog> completely. Reason? No consensus on multiple issues relating to accessibility and security: https://github.com/whatwg/html/pull/4184#issuecomment-440405...

And then boom! It was shipped everywhere with none of the issues discussed or fixed.

Why?

My tiny conspiracy theory is because browsers are hellbent on removing "legacy" APIs like confirm/prompt, and Chrome tried to remove it about half-a-year to a year before <dialog> was suddenly shipped everywhere: https://dev.to/richharris/stay-alert-d

[chrishtr]

The issues were fixed actually.

https://github.com/whatwg/html/wiki/dialog--initial-focus,-a...

https://github.com/whatwg/html/pull/8199

[troupo]

Fixed after dialog was rapidly pushed into production across all browsers.

- Argued that dialog should be removed: 2018

- Tried to force-remove confirm/prompt: mid-2021

- Dialog rushed into all browsers: March 8-14, 2022.

- The linked proposal for a fix: March 04, 2022

- Request for position on standard: Jan 18, 2023

- The proposal merged into the standard: Jan 26, 2023

- Implemented in browsers: ?? (Webkit is possibly July 2024: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250795)

"Actually"

Dialog was literally rushed into all browsers without bothering to fix the issues that plagued it for a decade. Some of them were fixed post-factum because now you couldn't ignore these issues.