REC-CSS2 contradicts itself on "containing blocks"

There are two contradiction in REC-CSS2-19980512:

Quote i: section 8.1 (Box dimensions) says

| padding edge
|      [...] The padding edge of a box defines the edges of the
|      containing block established by the box.

Quote ii: section 9.4.3 (Relative positioning), second paragraph:

|  A relatively positioned box establishes a new a new containing
|  block for normal flow children and positioned descendants.

Quote iii: 10.1 (Definition of "containing block"), item 2 says: 

|   2. For other elements, unless the element is absolutely positioned, the
|      containing block is formed by the content edge of the nearest
|      block-level ancestor box.


The first question is: What are the edges of an vanilla containing
block?  The padding edges (quote i) or the content edges (quote iii).

The second question is: Suppose this input:

    <STYLE>
    EM { position: relative; }
    </STYLE>
    
    <P>
      <EM>foo <B>bar</B> baz</EM>

What is the containg block of the B element? The box(en) created by EM
(quote ii) or the box created by P (quote iii)? (after all EM is an
inline element).

Gilbert.

Received on Wednesday, 18 August 1999 02:51:17 UTC