Re: [CSS21] Concern about anonymous table objects and whitespace

On Jan 23, 2009, at 9:31 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:

> The only reason this might not work is if you *really* want a
> shrinkwrapped containing block around the inline blocks, frex to
> provide a background.  In that case, however, you can *right now* just
> add another containing <div>, make *it* display:table with auto
> margins, and then make the <ul> display:table-cell.  In the future
> we'll have the ability to *tell* blocks to shrinkwrap, and in the
> limit he can use ul::outside to generate the display:table block
> through CSS rather than inserting it into the markup.

The layout can also be achieved with inline-blocks and text- 
align:center. No table displays needed, AFAICT. And that has the  
advantage of working in IE6 or later.

> So, this isn't a *real* use-case, in that it does not require any
> changes to CSS to get the desired rendering.  I'd rather ignore it.
> If this type of markup (a display:table block immediately followed by
> inappropriate children) *is* necessary to deal with, though, then we
> do need to sort out whitespace issues so that we can accurately tell
> when we need to auto-wrap the contents of a table block and when we
> don't.

I think we have to be very careful about ignoring things that would  
break existing layouts.