Digit input type

[marcoscaceres]

On the mailing list, @grimreaper (I think) proposed "digit" as an input type.

There is support for such keyboards on:

• iOS
• Android

It seems like a sensible addition to the platform.

[domenic]

I feel like we definitely shouldn't add more input types; that hasn't gone super-well in the past. But some kind of revised inputmode proposal that implementers were actually interested in would make sense to me. @mounirlamouri and I have talked about such a thing in the past.

[marcoscaceres]

I feel like we definitely shouldn't add more input types; that hasn't gone super-well in the past.

Sure, date and color were disasters, but email, url, maybe not so much (at least, on iOS)? But I agree there is scope for something better.

But some kind of revised inputmode proposal that implementers were actually interested in would make sense to me. @mounirlamouri and I have talked about such a thing in the past.

Looking forward to hearing more...

[mounirlamouri]

The issue with using new type is that developers want to customise them. Advanced types are not used much on the Web and even if one of the reason might be the fairly low browser support for a while, the main reason might be controlling the user experience.

It seems that the main use cases for digit is to control the virtual keyboard and I think something like inputmode would be the right solution. However, I still think that the inputmode spec as it is (or at least, last time I checked) didn't make much sense. I think that exposing various virtual keyboard types like digit in there would be beneficial.

[grimreaper]

I am @grimreaper. I proposed "digit" as an "inputmode", not as a type.
In particular there are a large number of cases where only digits are acceptable, but the type isn't a number per se. For example credit card values, CVV values, TOTP codes, etc.

[grimreaper]

more generally, being able to control the keyboard presented is a valuable feature, and a large part of the user experience. While I'd love to see advanced types used (and be re-implemented, poorly, less) there is clear evidence that UX designers care about the keyboard.
The present version of how this is done is a "hack" of using the pattern \d*.

[annevk]

In theory inputmode=numeric addresses this, though note that nobody implements this and we plan on removing it in #3077.

In practice you can use pattern=[0-9]+. We should maybe encourage that user agents adapt their UI based on the attribute value given that they're doing that already?

[victornpb]

Sure, date and color were disasters, but email, url, maybe not so much (at least, on iOS)? But I agree there is scope for something better.

Could you elaborate on what made you come to that conclusion? Why those controls are widely used on native iOS and Android apps, and why it is different on the web.