Re: auto-numbering in CSS (was: content property)

Douglas Rand wrote:
> I don't like that either.  It doesn't allow me to have a set of
things
> which are numbered which don't relate to a flat section of the
document
> tree.  I'm sure I could do it by writing LISP code,  but that doesn't
> seem elegant at all to me.

It looks to me as though DSSSL has numbers that encompass all levels of
the hierarchy. element-child-number relates to a flat section but
element-number relates to all such elements in the document. As I see
it, the trick is fitting the DSSSL model into a more compact
CSS-compatible syntax, possibly a general syntax for accessing
properties of another element.

> What I'd like is a set of named counters and some sort of formatting
> language for combining these into output patterns.  Something where
> I could type something human readable like:  %chapter.%section

Named counters? I hope you don't mean 'keywords' that correspond to
someone's idea of 'appropriate' document structure. Yuck! Such would
begin the 'Netscapization' of CSS. Any counters should be properties of
elements, IMO.

David Perrell

Received on Thursday, 8 May 1997 21:16:58 UTC