Re: CSS 2: priorities in cascading order

On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Hakon Lie wrote:

> 
> If we want to address the first issue, I believe we should do so
> without adding any new syntax (a la adding "absolute" in addition to
> "imporatant") since this would not work in older browsers. Instead, I
> think CSS2 could say that "important" declararations in author style
> sheets should be regarded as having normal weight.
> 

This is the simplest solution and the easiest to understand and apply. In
my previous message I supported !absolute; on the assumption that changing
the definition of !important; was out of the question. However, I would
much rather that the explanation of !important; in the spec be changed so
that authors' rules are given normal weight, irrespective of whether or
not they are marked as important. This would give priority to the reader's
stylistic preferences. To convince authors of the desirability of this
approach, one could point out to them that some people require particular
font sizes, contrasting colours, etc., and would otherwise be unable to
read the document at all; and such a scenario can hardly be consistent
with an author's intention.