[drupal-devel] New themeable function for buttons?

[Robert Douglass]

The fact that Cancel uses a GET request and not a POST request is not a 
valid argument for how to design the user interface.

One of the problems with the cancel link is that it says cancel. That is 
definitely an non-navigation action and I prefer buttons for that type 
of action. If the link said "go somewhere else with the side-effect that 
your content won't be deleted", then it would be clear to me that it was 
a navigation link.

One way or another, we expect the user to click one of the two elements 
to  end the transaction that they started with Delete. The two options 
should be equal. People accidentally click Delete sometimes and the 
reason we offer a cancel is so that they can have recourse of not 
deleting (and feel confident about it too, since they could simply hit 
Home and achieve the same). We shouldn't try to guess that the user 
probably wants to click Delete and therefore it should stick out more.

I don't have any experience browsing web sites as if I were visually 
impaired; how do people use buttons in those cases? Surely a normal HTML 
button can't be a useability obstacle for that user group?

In the end, it is the consistency that is the most important to me. Make 
them both the same kind of interface and I'll learn to live with it. 
Finding more opportunities to mix up links and buttons is a bad idea.

Robert