Alternatives

To disable form submission

• method=none / nosubmit boolean attribute. To support the migration of the div usage without adding extra attributes the absence of action must disable form submission, therefore the alternatives would be redundant.

No hybrid element

Define 2 elements (<search> and <searchform>) for the 2 use-cases:

• <div role=search> –> <search>
• <form role=search action="..."> –> <searchform action="...">

Implementing this has the same cost as the hybrid solution, in which HTMLFormElement branches in one location in ScheduleFormSubmission() to differentiate between <search> and <form>. That condition would be replaced by another condition in HTMLTreeBuilder to match <searchform>.

The only benefit would be that <search> with an unset action attribute behaves consistently with <form>.

Disable form submission with JavaScript

• <form role=search> –> <search>
• <div role=search> –> <search submit="return false;">

Implementing this has almost the same cost as the hybrid solution: it saves one condition in ScheduleFormSubmission(). The drawback is that use-cases for client-side rendering require the boilerplate of a submit event handler.