Re: CSS2.1: The 'content' property

Tantek Çelik wrote:
> On 3/2/03 4:13 PM, "fantasai" <fantasai@escape.com> wrote:
> 
>>It should also be renamed to 'auto', as 'auto' means "self"--
> 
> No.  'auto' does not mean "self" in the context of CSS.

Etymologically, it derives from a Greek word meaning "self".
And in the context of CSS, it /has/ been used to indicate
_intrinsic_ and/or automatically determined (i.e. not explicitly
specified) values.

The initial value of 'content' is defined, in CSS3, to mean
using the _intrinsic_ content of the element, to use as
its content not an explicitly specified value, but one
automatically determined by lookup in the document tree.

> Whereas 'normal' actually means "don't do anything special, just do the
> usual (normal) thing", which as you say:
...
> like the value 'normal' for the properties font-style, font-variant,
> font-weight, letter-spacing, and word-spacing for example.
>
>>and it implies that any other value is
>>"abnormal". ;)
> 
> To some minor extent that may be true, though no more so than the other than
> 'normal' values for other properties that accept 'normal'.

In those cases, the value /is/ "abnormal". In the font properties,
all the other values are deviations (derivations) from the
normal font in the family. Explicitly-given spacing is a deviation
from the normal value. "content: normal" may indicate the normal
*behavior*, but **the values for content aren't behaviors**;
they're values to be substituted in.

~fantasai

Received on Thursday, 5 February 2004 20:59:41 UTC