[csswg-drafts] definition of 'content' is confused about what applies to elements

dbaron has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts:

== definition of 'content' is confused about what applies to elements ==
The [definition of `content`](https://drafts.csswg.org/css-content/#content-property) seems to me to be a bit confused about what actually applies to elements.  This appears (like #2657) to be a regression from [the fix for #308](https://hg.csswg.org/drafts/rev/925ec94e246d661b4e951e5d9b2df0d1bdd697d6).

In particular, it starts off by saying near the beginning:

>For elements, it has only one purpose: specifying that the element renders as normal, or replacing the element with an image (and possibly some associated "alt text").

which seems to imply that the only values that do anything are `normal` and `<<content-replacement>>`.

However, it:
* doesn't say what happens if the `<<content-list>>` syntax is used on elements
* depends on a value that is actually in the `<<content-list>>` syntax as the *initial* value on elements, since `normal` computes to `contents` which is part of `<<content-list>>`
* explicitly defines the behavior of `none` on elements (which isn't included in the original purpose)
* includes `contents` in the value of `<<content-list>>` when the *only* use of `contents` is on elements (that is, if the `<<content-list>>` value isn't used on elements, the explicit `contents` value shouldn't exist, but should only be described in the definition of `normal` for elements)

It seems like the initial sentence that I quoted seems to be specifying that the property only does the one thing on elements that WebKit happens to have implemented long ago, but the rest of the spec is mostly sticking to specifying more features, as existing prior to the change I mentioned.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/2672 using your GitHub account

Received on Friday, 11 May 2018 15:00:59 UTC