Re: [css3-background] background-shorthand and its background-clip side-effect

On Mar 5, 2010, at 7:52 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On it's own it not too bad, but as a way to disambiguate between two
>> subproperties in in 'background' that take the same values, it is
>> inconsistent with any of the proposals to disambiguate <bg-position> and
>> <bg-size>.  I don't think this serves authors as well, ultimately, who
>> currently have no expectations of how this disambiguation should occur.
> 
> The position/size disambiguation needs to be more complex, because
> there is added possibility of confusion.  Both properties can have one
> or two value, so if you see two lengths next to each other, you can't
> tell whether it's just one property being specified or two being given
> a single value.  Similarly, if you see 3 values you can't tell which
> property gets a pair and which gets a singleton.

You can if you use the slash the way I was suggesting, which would also be consistent between disambiguating BOTH the <bg-position>/<bg-size> combinations AND the <bg-origin>/<bg-clip> combinations in the same ways. Thus, the position/size disambiguation does NOT need to be more complex than the origin/clip disambiguation. They can both be simple, with a single slash providing a reference point for disambiguation.