Re: CSS Defaults

Thomas Reardon wrote:
> user's guide documenting what is
> implemented from CSS1 and what is not.  Check out
> http://www.microsoft.com/workshop, look for Authoring guides.

Your documentation doesn't correspond to the CSS1 spec. According to
your quick reference, the margin properties set the margins relative
to the page, which I presume from context--and from the current
behavior of IE3--means the window. But the CSS1 spec states:

--------------------------------
Technically, padding and margin properties are not inherited. But, as
the example shows, the placement of an element is relative to
ancestors and siblings so these elements' padding and margin
properties have an effect on their children.margins relative to the
enclosing container.
--------------------------------

And the example clearly shows that margins are relative to the
container, not the page. BODY is a container. IE3 does not treat
margins according to CSS1 spec.

Your quick reference states that "In addition to using margins, you
can also set additional indentation for sections of your page using
the text-indent attribute." But the CSS1 spec states:

--------------------------------
The property specifies indent that appears before the first formatted
line. 'text-indent' may be negative, but there may be
implementation-specific limits. An indent is not inserted in the
middle of an element that was broken by another (such as 'BR' in
HTML). 
--------------------------------

In other words, text-indent equals paragraph indent and applies to
the first line of a text block. In this case only your documentation
is wrong, IE3 treats text-indent correctly.

A margin-left set for BLOCKQUOTE should have the default blockquote
indent added, which is the current situation.
 
We previously discussed the vertical margin problem. To me, the
horizontal margins are more serious, since you are in effect
deviating from the spec and then documenting this as correct
behavior.

I wrote that "MS is doing a disservice by not letting folks know
which parts of CSS1 are not implemented properly" and, much as I
think you're doing a great job of publishing documentation on your
site, I don't see that the Users Guide to Style Sheets alleviates
that claim. Users should be aware that IE margins don't work in
accordance with the CSS1 spec before they start writing style sheets.

I switched to IE because I think you've even implemented Netscapisms
better than they have, and it's great that you've done as much on
CSS1 as you have. But I've found from playing around with CSS that
your interpretation of margins is inferior to the spec, and I'd
really like to see a version that works correctly.

David Perrell

Received on Monday, 26 August 1996 00:11:21 UTC