Re: a simple question

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Hickson <py8ieh@bath.ac.uk>
To: Braden N. McDaniel <braden@endoframe.com>
Cc: Ignacio Javier <ignacio.gomez@dicoruna.es>; Todd Fahrner
<fahrner@pobox.com>; www-style@w3.org <www-style@w3.org>
Date: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: a simple question


>
>I wrote:
>>> The answer with 'color' and 'background-color' is to *always* specify
>>> them together, and *never* use 'background-color: transparent'.
>
>Braden wrote:
>> There is no reason not to use "background-color: transparent" as
>> long as you know what the underlying background is.
>
>Absolutely. Unfortunately, you never know what the underlying
>background is, because of user stylesheets.

Never say never. You know the underlying background as soon as you have
overridden the user value with something (other than "transparent" or
"inherit").

>Why do you think lints complain when you don't specify a
>background-color for your color?

Because it doesn't use the AI required to parse the CSS inheritance model to
see if the user value has been safely overridden at some level.

> It is because then the
>background-color will be transparent (initial value, background-color
>is not inherited), and so it could clash with the user stylesheet.


Not if it inherits from an author's rule (where a background color/image is
explicitly defined) and not a user's.

>> (that is, you have set it elsewhere)
>
>There is no guarantee that any rules you write will not be overridden
>by a user stylesheet.

Of course. This applies equally to your argument, so it seems a moot point.

Braden

Received on Wednesday, 10 March 1999 02:07:50 UTC