whatwg/html

"determine the value of a named property" should not imply a new object each time

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#5,266 opened on Feb 10, 2020

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good first issueneeds teststopic: forms

Description

Some people seem to read https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/forms.html#dom-form-nameditem as implying that a new nodelist should be returned each time when there are multiple matching elements. That's not the intent, I assume, and it might be worth clarifying the spec to make it clear.

All browsers I tested (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) return the same nodelist on multiple accesses.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
html
Domain
documentation
Issue type
documentation
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
None
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
The issue calls for clarifying the spec text in the HTML Standard, specifically the 'determine the value of a named property' algorithm in the forms section. The key point is that browsers return the same NodeList object on multiple accesses, so the spec should explicitly state that a new object is not expected. The resolution might involve adding a note or changing the wording in the algorithm. See the referenced section at https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/forms.html#dom form nameditem.