Re[2]: CSS multi-column layout (was Re: From CSS to DSSSL)

Are we asking for a boxed region that can be specified in terms of 
percentage of screen width AND height? Sounds suspiciously like frames, 
plus the capability to flow from one frame to the next, handled via CSS. 
Interesting idea....

Brad Chase
Bitstream Inc.

bchase@bitstream.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: CSS multi-column layout (was Re: From CSS to DSSSL)
Author:  www-style@w3.org at huxleypo
Date:    4/17/97 9:58 PM


At 8:33 PM -0500 4/17/97, Liam Quinn wrote: 
> On 17 Apr 97 at 15:23, Todd Fahrner wrote: 
>
> > (if only css
> > could accommodate multi-column layout....) 
>
> What about the following, using CSS Positioning: 
>
> div.col1 { position: absolute; left: 1%; width: 31% } 
> div.col2 { position: absolute; left: 35%; width: 48% } 
> div.col3 { position: absolute; left: 70% }
>
> and then
>
> <DIV CLASS=col1>
> <!-- Column 1 -->
> </DIV>
> <DIV CLASS=col2>
> <!-- Column 2 -->
> </DIV>
> <DIV CLASS=col3>
> <!-- Column 3 -->
> </DIV>
>
> Or is that not what you meant?
     
Not quite what I meant. Unlike nsml's <multicol>, this requires markup to 
terminate/begin each column. Not good - columns would not balance properly 
in many cases, and I don't need to tell *you* about the drawbacks of 
intensive presentational markup, graceful degradation or no. Like 
<multicol>, however, columns are likely to be clipped if the canvas is too 
short. It's one thing to have to scroll down; another to scroll up *and* 
down.
     
I am imagining a "pseudo-paged" model in which text flows from one box (for 
lack of a better word) to another, where the box dimensions and positions 
relate geometrically to the aspect/area of the window, taking height into 
account as well as width. Somewhere would be some unobtrusive (or 
invisible) mechanism to queue up (or scroll) the next segment. The "keep 
together" and "break before" bits from the Printing Extensions draft would 
be helpful here, which is another reason I don't want to see "print" and 
"screen" as media selectors, but instead descriptions of the rendering 
environment in terms of aspect, dpi, color model/depth, etc. (A printer is 
just a tree-powered screen with a very low refresh rate, a high resolution, 
and a troublesome color model, after all).
     
     
________________________________________ 
Todd Fahrner
     
The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the 
infinitude of books, must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY.
     
--El Lissitzky, 1923

Received on Friday, 18 April 1997 16:23:35 UTC