Hack 4. Bring Back the <input> Tag

HTML5 has breathed new life into the <input> tag. It’s time to get excited once again about this “age-old” tag.

I have to admit that I was getting a little bored with the <input> tag. Before HTML5, any real interaction had to be done outside the tag: whether the interaction involved validation, formatting, or graphical presentation, JavaScript was a necessary polyfill. Well, HTML5 has given us a reason to be excited about the <input> tag again.

The <input> tag is not truly an HTML5 tag, per se. It’s the same <input> tag we have had in every previous version of HTML, but HTML5 has added a slew of new features. The good thing about updating an existing tag is that it’s naturally backward-compatible. You may code your tag like this: