Re: [css3-gcpm] Leaders

Also sprach Werner Donné:

 > 1) The leader function can have a string as well as a keyword as
 >    its first argument. Since there is always a string alternative
 >    for the keywords and since the approach is based on glyphs, I
 >    think the keywords are not needed. They would only be needed
 >    for things that are drawn by the UA, in which case for example
 >    the spacing between the dots or the thickness of the rule should
 >    be definable through a property.

True, they are not needed. It's merely convenience.

 > 2) The second optional argument to the leader function is not needed.
 >    Regular properties influence the appearance of leaders, so the
 >    regular inheritance rules can be applied.

The reason for having it is to achieve uniform leader sizes on pages
with different font sizes. For example, in a toc you may have chapter
entries with a (relatively) big size, and a subsection entry with a
(relatively) small size. However, most often, you want the leaders
extending from the text to have a uniform size.

 > 3) The WD asks "Should other properties influence the appearance of leaders?".
 >    If leaders are repetitions of glyphs they are inline material and
 >    hence any property that applies to inline elements should also
 >    apply to leaders.

So, if 'letter-spacing' is set on a toc entry, dotted leaders should
be spaced out as well?

 > 4) Determining the length of a leader is based on the available empty
 >    space on a line. It should also be possible to fix its length,
 >    either through a property of type <length> (leader-length for example),
 >    or perhaps by specifying the number of repetitions in an optional
 >    argument to the leader function.

I disagree here. Leaders, by definition have a flexible length. If you
knew the lenth, you would use a regular element.

However, setting the *minimum* lenght of a leader is reasonable, I think.

-h&kon
              Håkon Wium Lie                          CTO °þe®ª
howcome@opera.com                  http://people.opera.com/howcome