Floated pseudo-elements

I think it should be clarified in the CSS spec that when a pseudo-element is
floated, the pseudo-element content is selected before any
pseudo-element-specific formatting is applied.

Consider the non-floated :first-line pseudo-element of the following
paragraph:

   The first line of this block
   is followed by the second line
   is followed by the third line.

If letter-spacing is increased, the content of the non-floated :first-line
pseudo-element will change:

   T h e  f i r s t  l i n e  o f
   this block is followed by the
   second line is followed by the
   third line.

In the case of a floated :first-line, however, the pseudo-element content
must be selected based on the formatting of the element before the
pseudo-element formatting is applied.

For example, here the letter-spaced :first-line has been floated left with a
negative left margin and an explicit width:

  T h e  f i r s t     is followed
  l i n e  o f         by the
  t h i s   b l o c k  second line
   is followed by the third line.

I'm not claiming this is a useful example, just that it's better to define
general behavior than ad hoc restrictions.

David Perrell

Received on Wednesday, 17 December 1997 20:39:06 UTC