Discussion
I suspect I will always think it was a mistake to allow author styling of `<select>` elements and sub-elements, and yes, most other form inputs as well.
I acknowledge the reasons for supporting it are valid and real, and also that I’m likely just being an old sourpuss. I nevertheless continue to believe user interaction elements should be consistent with the host operating system, so that users subconsciously know what a thing is when they see or otherwise interact with it.
Ah well.
@Meyerweb I agree but also get the arguments the other way. I think that accent-color was a sensible compromise.
@Meyerweb "Things that are the same should look the same"
Web: We don't do that here
@Meyerweb agree with emphasis - and a caveat that while there might indeed be "valid and real" reasons...the majority of UI designers who _think_ they have such a valid reason are in fact wrong (for example, my employer's help desk ticketing system vendor).
@Meyerweb Oh, man, you just reminded me of the very first time I saw a CSS-styled <select> and it blew my entire mind. I assume it used Verdana 11 (because that’s what we did then), and I remember the color had been changed, and it seemed like absolutely anything was possible.
@Meyerweb I think the logic is that after decades of people rolling their own, the native controls look just as foreign as any other. Allowing for more customization of the native controls improves the user experience in almost every other regard.
@Meyerweb I may have similar opinions about cursors, and yet: https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/14251
Giving the increasing tendency of desktop applications using their own UI widgets, I'd dare say they are using the new OS standard.
Clients are always asking to style every UI element according with their own designs. The alternative to giving us the ability to style them is us continue making our own implementations. No joke.
Allowing us to style form inputs means better accessibility, and maybe even the ability to disable CSS and have a functional page.
@jcurioso As I said, I acknowledge that the reasons for wanting this, which you have now written out, are valid and real. This does not undo my feelings on the matter.
I will go even further: every browser should have a button in the main toolbar to disable CSS (displaying custom defaults), and every website should be doing an effort to be fully functional when that button is pressed, unless it is a Photoshop clone, for example. With a little push from the standards side, it should be achievable for 90% of sites. Plus, we would much better accessibility.
Reading mode is cool, but it is a poor surrogate, and it doesn't have the same goals.
@Meyerweb
Particularly inputs as complex as date and time inputs, though many host OSes and browsers need to do a better job at usability and accessibility there.