Re: [CSS21] Function parsing in declarations

Ian Hickson wrote:

>Functions in values are values, and so may start with a hyphen.

Thank you for the clarification.

Indeed, a function is actually not a defined concept in CSS at all as far
as I can see. It is neither mentioned in 4.3, Values [1], nor as a
possible constituent of a value in 4.1.8, Declarations and properties [2]:

"The syntax of values is specified separately for each property, but in
any case, values are built from identifiers, strings, numbers, lengths,
percentages, URIs, and colors."

This makes the description of e.g. the 'content' property [3] harder to
understand, as its description uses the term "functions" for the
constructs counter(), counters() and attr(), wrongly suggesting there
being a respective concept of a "function" in CSS. This is rather
inconsistent with the presentation of Counters (and URI) in 4.3 [1] where
the wording takes care not to suggest that the latter are functions, but
instead just notes that they use some sort of a "functional notation".
Maybe the wording should be changed at either location to become clear
and consistent.

[1] <http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#values>
[2] <http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#declaration>
[3] <http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/generate.html#propdef-content>

Regards, Christian.

Received on Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:27:59 UTC