Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-gaps-1] `overlap-join` with `between` rule visibility (#13697)

Thanks for drafting these up, @kbabbitt. My thoughts align closely with @jav099:

- **_Option 1_**: introduces two separate properties that control almost the same behavior, which makes it a confusing interaction in css. If an author sets both `*-rule-*-inset-*` and `rule-intersection-join`, it becomes unclear which wins and difficult to debug why a decoration looks the way it does. Splitting related concerns across properties like this feels somewhat brittle.

- **_Options 2a and 2b_**: you've already captured this well in your writeup, but I want to +1 the concern: both variants feel un-CSS-like and impose a high mental workload on authors to express what should be straightforward behavior. The functional notation in 2a and the keyword-heavy grammar in 2b are powerful but feel mentally heavy for css.

- **_Option 3_**: feels like the strongest path forward. It gives authors meaningful, cascade-friendly control over intersecting vs. non-intersecting endpoints without adding new properties beyond what we have today.

That said, I agree with Javier that "dangling" is not a great name as it is definitely not intuitive for non-native English speakers, and I'd also argue it's not intuitive for non-tech folks. I'd propose keeping edge from the current `edge|interior` distinction and pairing it with intersecting, giving us `[column|row]-rule-[intersecting|edge]-inset-[start|end]`. The term "edge" can describe endpoints that don't meet a crossing decoration (whether they're on the outer boundary of the grid or on the inside of a "donut hole.") Both are visually edges of a decoration segment in my opinion.

This can also set us up well for the future: if we later need to distinguish between outer-boundary edges and inner-boundary edges (e.g., for #13087), we could introduce `exterior/interior` as further refinements of edge. There's also @alisonmaher's earlier `exclude-edges` suggestion from #12024, which could evolve into something like `exclude-exterior` / `exclude-interior` to give authors targeted control over which edge endpoints receive certain treatments.

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Received on Tuesday, 7 April 2026 17:45:40 UTC