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

From: Bert Bos <bert@w3.org>
Subject: Re: % height on <html> (was Re: Table height/width properties)
Date: Fri, Jul 6, 2001, 12:22 PM

>> > 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).

This makes sense.

I think the spec should also explicitly suggest it for 'height'.

> 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).

I agree with this too.


Proposed errata for CSS2:


 Suggest (but not require) using the viewport height as the specified height
of the containing block of a root element for the purposes of computing a
percentage height value on that root element.


Tantek

Received on Friday, 6 July 2001 21:34:49 UTC