:first-line in CSS2.1 (was: New drafts, CSS 2.1,...)

Hello Bert,

On Monday, August 5, 2002 you wrote:


> CSS 2.1     CSS level 2 revision 1
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/

>     This is the revised edition of CSS2. It has all the errata folded
>     in, it omits all the features for which we don't expect sufficient
>     implementations by the end of this year, and adds a few small
>     things from CSS3 that we expect *will* be implemented this year.
>     All in all, this should be the version of CSS that is "safe" for
>     users of desktop browsers.


Quotes from
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/selector.html#first-line-pseudo

<quote 1>
In case a certain first line is the first line of some
block-level element A as well as of A's ancestor B , the fictional tag
sequence is as follows:

<B>...<A>...<B:first-line><A:first-line>This is the first
line</A:first-line></B:first-line>

All fictional tags for first-line are inside the smallest enclosing
block-level element and the nesting order of the fictional tags
A:first-line and B-first-line is the same as that of the elements A
and B .
</quote 1>

Apart small typo's (a space before the first comma and the final dot,
and the hyphen instead of the colon in 'B-first-line'), this example
doesn't clarify anything for me. A 'before and after' applying
first-line would be nice.


<quote 2>
The "first formatted line" of a block level element is the
first line in the element's flow, i.e., ignoring any floats or
absolutely positioned elements. For example, in

<div>
<p style="float: left">Floating paragraph...</p>
<p>First line starts here...</p>
</div>

The selector 'div:first-line' applies to the first line of the second
p, because the first p is taken out of the flow.
</quote 2>

I note that Mozilla 1, MSIE6 nor Opera 6 get this right. And they also
do not apply :first-line on the first line in the first LI inside an
UL/OL. And only Opera applies :first-line to the first line of a P
nested in a BLOCKQUOTE. See
http://rijk.op.het.net/test/first-line-tests.html

So while 2.1 is probably a lot 'safer', it is not absolutely 'safe'.
Bert's quotes around that word are appropriate :)



Greetings,
 Rijk                            mailto:rijk@iname.com

Mot du Jour:
The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.

Received on Monday, 5 August 2002 07:38:40 UTC