[Bug 17122] "Applies To" line for 'overflow' property hinders forwards-compatibility

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=17122

--- Comment #6 from Anton P <antonsforums@yahoo.co.uk> 2012-07-15 09:06:54 UTC ---
Regarding the proposal for this bug found in Comment 1, Øyvind Stenhaug made
the comment that "Applies to" is supposed to list the *elements* to which the
property applies, not boxes.  (Whether that's actually what we want is an
orthogonal question unlikely to be addressed for CSS21.)  No-one expressed any
objection to hand-waving that issue away by blaming it on the spec-wide element
vs box sloppiness.  See
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2012May/0793.html

In fact, though, this bug has a dependency on
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2012Jul/0338.html (not yet
accepted as a Bug) which proposes to define "block container element" in CSS21.
If that happens, the proposal for this bug can be rewritten in terms of
elements not boxes:

  | Applies to: block container elements and elements that establish a
  | formatting context

Where as proposal in Comment 1 is expressed in terms of boxes and aims to
"capture" table boxes via the second clause, the proposal above captures them
via either clause, since a table element would be both a block container
element (since its principal table wrapper box is a block container) and an
element which establishes (not just one but) two formatting contexts.  The
'overflow' property itself has its effect on the table box not the table
wrapper box, as per the property distribution rules in 17.4.

It doesn't seem worth making a change to the second clause without the change
to the first clause though, since that just muddies the waters further by
mixing elements and boxes in the same phrase.  Hence the dependency on defining
"block container element".

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Received on Sunday, 15 July 2012 09:06:56 UTC