Re: Proposal: :column pseudo-class

O> > >
> > > The :column pseudo-class is effective on elements with display type 
> > > table-cell or table-column or table-column-group only.
> > 
> > The cascade happens before layout. You don't know an element's display 
> > type at the time you are doing selector matching.
> 
> Couldn't this problem simply be solved by removing the presentational
> attributes "colspan" and "rowspan".

The problem exists independent of the existence of the attributes 
"colspan" and "rowspan".

The problem is that a cell *is not a cell yet* when doing selector 
matching. Short of doing selector matching twice (once for one set of 
properties, and then again for another set, with a required layout pass in 
between the two steps) you simply cannot have selectors that depend on 
properties. And as I explained a few days ago, doing the two-pass selector 
matching simply isn't an option, as it would be a performance nightmare.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Saturday, 2 July 2005 18:45:17 UTC