I can't agree more with the points raised in the post.
But input type file... now that's really screwed up at the moment. Ever wanted to style that thing? Good luck, there's pretty much no cross browser CSS support for styling just about any of it. Oh, you can do some stuff in Webkit or Blink, but good luck trying to do the same for Gecko or Trident/Edge powered browsers.
Ah well. The input element is at least easier to style than the select one. That one's so annoying to customise that just about every major site replaces it with a Javascript version.
<input type='file'> is unbelievable for its inability to be styled. IE is even more bizarre in that it displays the full path of the file chosen in a text field with a blinking cursor like you can type when active but ignores keyboard entry - except the backspace or delete keys that removes the file if there is one selected. IE11 changed file selection from double-click on mystery text field to single click on mystery text field. Browse always worked however.
I wouldn't be that upset about the styling limitations if we at least had a reasonable way to give it a size. The common workaround is pretty nasty: http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/inputfile.html
But input type file... now that's really screwed up at the moment. Ever wanted to style that thing? Good luck, there's pretty much no cross browser CSS support for styling just about any of it. Oh, you can do some stuff in Webkit or Blink, but good luck trying to do the same for Gecko or Trident/Edge powered browsers.
Ah well. The input element is at least easier to style than the select one. That one's so annoying to customise that just about every major site replaces it with a Javascript version.