Re: % height on <html> (was Re: Table height/width properties)

Ian Hickson writes:
> On Mon, 2 Jul 2001, Tantek Celik wrote:
> >
> > What *is* supposed to happen when you specify 'height: 100%' on the
> > root element (e.g. <html> in an HTML document)?
> 
> I think we agree that it is currently undefined.
> 
> If we are willing to break backwards-compatability with some potential
> compliant implementations, we could change that so that percentages on
> the root element are explicitly treated as 'auto'.
> 
> 
> > Section 9.1.2 of CSS2 says:
> ># The root of the document tree generates a box that serves as the
> ># initial containing block for subsequent layout.
> >
> > Whereas section 10.1 of CSS2 says:
> ># The containing block (called the initial containing block) in which
> ># the root element lives is chosen by the user agent.
> >
> > CSS2 disagrees with itself.
> 
> In my opinion the parenthetical comment in section 10.1 quoted above
> should be stricken. The example further down in that same section also
> disagrees it, and all other mentions of 'initial containing block' in
> chapters 9 and 10 assume it is the root element.

Yes, I believe the error is the parenthetical remark. When that is
removed, the contradiction goes away.

The intention, I think, is that the containing block of the root
element is indeed chosen by the UA, with the suggestion that in many
cases the "viewport" (typically a window) is a good choice.

That's what the spec says explicitly for 'width' (in 9.1.2).

But the spec doesn't want to *require* the viewport, because it
doesn't want to disallow implementations in which the width of the
root is different from the width of the window (as it was with most
document viewers before Mosaic, and in some current browsers that take
the maximum of the window and the document's intrinsic size).



Bert
-- 
  Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/
  http://www.w3.org/people/bos/                              W3C/INRIA
  bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
  +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Friday, 6 July 2001 15:22:29 UTC