Submit button in forms revisited

rik.harris@vifp.monash.edu.au
Sun, 22 Jan 1995 20:53:07 +0100

This topic came up quite a while ago, but I can't find it in the
archives (anyone have a search engine on the full www-talk archives?).
I thought the previous discussions ended up saying something like: "you
need a submit button on the form, as you can't rely on the browser
submitting single-field forms when the user presses <return>". And
I've always put submit buttons on my forms for this reason.

However, the HTML2.0 spec seems to say differently.

In http://www.hal.com/products/sw/olias/Build-html/YLgs0XBMCmF84aK.html:

"When the form consists of a single text field, it may be appropriate
to leave such buttons out and rely on the Enter key."

That URL doesn't look like a very stable one :-). I got there from
ftp://halsoft.com/halsoft/olias/html-19940822/README.html then look at
the html version, then select 'forms and input fields'.

Lynx 2.3.8 doesn't support the use of <return> as a form submission
mechanism. This seems like a very old question. Who's wrong...the HTML
authors or the browser writers? Or are they just both following
different standards.

have fun,
rik.

--
The Fulcrum Consulting Group                                           o
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