Re: New display value "footnote"

Ian Hickson wrote:
>    @media print {
>       fn { content: footnote; }
>       fn::footnote { content: contents; }
>    }

> It requires two rules to specify a footnote.
> 
> And I don't really see any sensible way of solving that.

Does it necesarily?

Can't you just say that the ::footnote pseudo-element doesn't exist at 
all unless "content: footnote" is specified on the relevant element, and 
then say that the default value of the "content" property on the 
::footnote pseudo-element is "contents"?

Then you could solve the simple case by the single rule

fn { content: footnote }

A more complicated case:

fn { content: attr(summary) footnote }

(as in
<fn summary="HTML4">The HTML 4 specification is available at ...</fn>
)

So the only case that needs two rules is when the footnote body itself 
is an attribute.

fn::after { content: footnote }
fn::footnote { content: target(longdesc) }

Which is the same as your proposal.

I do agree that that's still a fairly common case to require two rules 
for, but at least it doesn't require two rules in the *very* basic case.

Stuart.

-- 
Stuart Ballard, Programmer
NetReach - Internet Solutions
(215) 283-2300, ext. 126
http://www.netreach.com/