Re: CSS3 Text

fantasai wrote:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-css3-text-20021024/#white-space-props :
>   | ignore | preserve | ignore-if-before-linefeed |
>   | ignore-if-after-linefeed | ignore-if-surrounding-linefeed
> 
> What's with all the 'if's? This is code here, not English.
> It should be clearly expressed, but it does not have to
> make a sentence. Clear /and/ concise, please.

Been thinking, it would be also better to change

ignore-if-surrounding-linefeed  -> ignore-around-linefeed

Shorter, reads better, avoids conjugation.

I really don't like the distinction between "white-space"
(which excludes newlines) and "all-space" (which doesn't),
since linefeeds and the like are generally considered
white-space. It's best, IMO, to avoid redefining concepts
when defining CSS properties.

...

Using "collapse" rather than "treatment" for the collapsing
properties leads to a more precise property name. It also
lets one shorten the names while preserving semantics. The
three white-space control properties could thus be combined
into two:

linefeed-treatment: ignore | preserve | space | zero-width | no-double

As described by Christoph Päper.

space-collapse: all | none | before-linefeed | after-linefeed |
                 around-linefeed | no-char

all - collapse all white-space except preserved linefeeds
none - preserve all white-space not affected by linefeed-treatment
before-linefeed - discard white-space before preserved linefeeds
after-linefeed - discard white-space after preserved linefeeds
around-linefeed - discard white-space before and after preserved
                   linefeeds
no-char - discard all white-space except preserved line feeds

(I also recommend s/linefeed/newline/g)


As for compatibility with XSL--I think usability
is more important. Shorter names are easier to
remember, and removing repetitive fluff makes
code easer to scan for its real meaning. If
CSS can learn from XSL's mistakes, so much the
better for us all.

~fantasai

Received on Monday, 16 December 2002 02:51:19 UTC