[selectors] Petition to change the "active" pseudo-class to "pressed"

[shaolinkitty]

Petition to update the name of the "active" pseudo class to "pressed" to better indicate intent and to also add a "selected" pseudo class to account for elements that incur that behavior AND carries that intent.

[Psychpsyo]

What would constitute an element being "selected"? A text selection within it? Around it? Would the selected option in a <select> dropdown be :selected? What about a ticked checkbox/radio button or a text field that is currently being edited?

Also, what would it be used for?

[shaolinkitty]

Yes, the selected option would be :selected and I believe the checkbox and radio button get the "checked" pseudo-class. The confusion really is around the word "active" itself. Changing the nomenclature to "pressed" further intimates the intended use for the class and clarifies where it should be used especially when it comes to stacked states. And also considering that folks often conflate the two (active and selected) in terms of how it might be designed and implemented.

[shaolinkitty]

My main goal is to foster a better design/dev language experience so we can all understand together how things are meant to be implemented and designed.

[shaolinkitty]

Material also breaks down some of this usage as well within their DS and other Design systems use this nomenclature as well to further clarify the targeted state and its design as a result.

Nielsen Norman Group
Adobe Spectrum (they call it down, but define it as pressed)

[Loirooriol]

At this point it's not possible to remove :active. It could be kept as an alias for the new thing, but would that be worth doing? IMO, not.

[fantasai]

I have to agree with @Loirooriol, it's too late (by a couple decades) to make this change.

I'll note that in the early Internet era, :active in some implementations continued to match while the link was loading or while its targetted element (for #fragment links) was still the targetted fragment. It's a bit disappointing that it's degenerated to "while mouse down" on any element at this point.

[shaolinkitty]

I understand. It just feels like the definition has become so nebulous at this point that redefinition with a name intent was in order but I understand no one wants to run find and replace across the entire internet to fix it. I was just trying to clear up confusion across systems. Instead I will just see if I can update the term within my small design system so that we can communicate with devs and designers better. Thank you for your kindness :-)