A question about specificity

I'm trying to understand two statements from the CSS 2.1 WD (see below) that
seem to contradict each other.  Could someone explain if this is a
contradiction.  Or am I just misunderstanding?

In 6.4.1 Cascading order
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/cascade.html#cascading-order),
the WD says:

3.  Sort by specificity of selector: more specific selectors will override
more general ones. Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes are counted as normal
elements and classes, respectively.

And then in 6.4.3 Calculating a selector's specificity
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/cascade.html#specificity), the
WD says:

... ignore pseudo-elements.

It seems that in one place the WD is saying to count pseudo-elements when
calculating specificity and then in another place to ignore pseudo-elements.
I would appreciate any help or insight on this issue.  I help teach two CSS
classes at IWA-HWG (http://www.iwaguild.com), and this question has come up
more than once from students.

Thank you,

Scott Montgomery

Received on Saturday, 31 August 2002 10:17:59 UTC