# A history of HTML input elements and their inconsistent browser behavior

DevFeed: [A history of HTML input elements and their inconsistent browser behavior](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/i-you-but-you-re-bringing-me-down-35505.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://meowni.ca/posts/a-story-about-input/>)

Author: Monica Dinculescu

Published: 2015-10-22T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Monica Dinculescu](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/monica-dinculescu.md>)

Topics: [HTML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/html.md>), [Web Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-development.md>), [Web platform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-platform.md>), [Forms](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/forms.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browsers.md>)

Tags: [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [chrome](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/chrome.md>), [file](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/file.md>), [firefox](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/firefox.md>), [forms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/forms.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [html5](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html5.md>), [password](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/password.md>), [radio](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/radio.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article reviews the history of HTML input elements, including their original types, the behavior of image and file inputs, differences between browsers, and the relationship between input and textarea. It also discusses newer HTML5 input types and their uneven implementation.

## Source excerpt

Some people build furniture. Some people knit. Some people have hobbies that don't involve HTML specs from the 90s. I am not those people. So here's a story about <input>, how it got to be the jerk that it is, and why it needs to die in a fire. The early years 1995 was a good year. Friends, ER, Xena were all on TV. TLC had dominated the charts with "Waterfalls". Browsers were ok, because HTML was pretty ok. We had Mosaic, Netscape and IE1, and the HTML2 spec was finally getting around to standardizing forms. 1995 was the year when <input> was born, and now that it's about old enough to drink, we need to have a talk. Input initially came along with 8 types: text, password, checkbox, radio, image, hidden, submit and reset, and in a separate RFC that followed, file. Wait, did you say image? Yeah, let's talk about it. <input type="image" src="cat.png"> looks like an image, but it's actually an image button that also submits the (x,y) coordinates of where you clicked on the image. Unless you don't specify a src file, in which case it's an "image button" that says "Submit". Unless you're in Firefox, in which case it says "Submit Query" and looks like a label. Unless you're in IE in which case it doesn't say anything at all. Also, for your local pub trivia night, the message that the type=file input to indicate you haven't done anything is "No file chosen", "no file selected", "No file selected", and just an empty textbox on Chrome, Safari, Firefox and IE respectively. Right, ok. And now, a <textarea> rant I always thought input and textarea came at later dates, and that explained why they're kind of insanely different. This is kind of true, since input was around in Mosaic since at least 1993, and it was a fixed-up implementation of ISINDEX. However, on the record, they were both children of the HTML2 spec, which decided that <input> is a self closing tag and uses a value attribute, while <textarea> needs a closing tag and uses its contents, even though they both just hol