Button vs input

[Samuz]

I don't exactly need help here. I'm just looking to start a discussion on the use of these two elements.

 

First off, these two work essentially the same (correct me if i'm wrong).

 

I can submit a form with

 

<input type="submit" />

or

<button type="submit"></button>

 

And they can be styled to essentially look the same. (With the use of :hover & :active)

 

I'm currently in the process of redesigning one of our old sites and i've noticed in th previous developers code he has used <input> in one place & <button> in others.

 

Normally i've always stuck to <input> and have never bothered to use <button>, because I just like the look of my code when creating forms all showing <input>. :v

 

So I just wanted to know if there was any REAL difference - apart from the default browser styles - from a semantic POV and if there are if somebody could point out when i'm really supposed to use <button> and when i'm supposed to use <input>.

 

Also pros/cons if any.

 

Thanks!

[codefossa]

I only use input's when it's submitting a form, and I use button tags when it's a button interacting with Javascript. I haven't really had much of that lately though, because there's much funner things to use in place of buttons with Javascript.

 

Also, button tags can turn about anything into a button. I'm not sure if input tags can. I always use /> closing so, I don't really know.

 

<button><img src="http://www.vietnamonline.com/userfile/article/linhphan/2011/10/Tet%20Vietnam.jpg" /></button>

 

Random Google pic .. don't ask. lol You can't do that with input tags though as far as I know. ( Just gave it a 2 second try to make sure. )

[DavidAM]

In the past, one of the browsers (can you guess which one?), submitted all of the buttons no matter which one you clicked. So, if you have a form with multiple <BUTTON> elements to submit it (for different actions), it was impossible to tell which one the user choose. I don't know if the more recent versions of IE behave differently or not; and I have not tested in other browsers recently, either. Basically, I quit using multiple BUTTONS when I discovered this problem.