A "better than the standards" suggestion for API

[rjcorwin]

The API for form elements in standard HTML and in Polymer iron-form elements is more complicated than it needs to be. I propose that every element with a name attribute would have a corresponding value attribute, and we call it a day.

For example, the API for paper-radio-group element...

<paper-radio-group selected="small">
  <paper-radio-button name="small">Small</paper-radio-button>
  <paper-radio-button name="medium">Medium</paper-radio-button>
  <paper-radio-button name="large">Large</paper-radio-button>
</paper-radio-group>

... could become simpler by modeling after a standard HTML select list like...

<select name="shirt-size">
  <option value="small" selected>Small</option>
  <option value="medium">Medium</option>
  <option value="large">Large</option>
</select>

... but could be better than the select list API by doing away with selected boolean and instead stay consistent with the "every element with a name attribute has a corresponding value attribute" proposal...

<paper-radio-group name="shirt-size" value="small">
  <paper-radio-button value="small">Small</paper-radio-button>
  <paper-radio-button value="medium">Medium</paper-radio-button>
  <paper-radio-button value="large">Large</paper-radio-button>
</paper-radio-group>

[rjcorwin]

If it interests anyone here, we're trying to document the Iron Form Elements API here and also discussing its design PolymerElements/iron-form#217