Re: Columns and other layouts

On Monday, Apr 28, 2003, at 02:57 Europe/London, Ian Hickson wrote:

> I was merely pointing out that saying "tables can do this but CSS 
> can't" is a flawed argument since CSS in fact supports most (at the 
> CSS2 level) if not all (at the CSS3 level) of the features used in tag 
> soup table layout.

Sorry, yes, of course you're right. I'm being vague in my use of terms. 
When I say "CSS can't" what I really mean is there is no better syntax 
than tables in CSS.


On Monday, Apr 28, 2003, at 04:24 Europe/London, Michael Day wrote:

> [1]	Constraint Cascading Style Sheets for the Web
> 	http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/gjb/papers/css-uist99.pdf

Constraint CSS does seem like a very useful system and is in line with 
the few simple expressions of syntax that I have been able to 
visualise. It's core provision, a framework for describing 
relationships, is certainly very powerful and potentially more natural 
than current positioning systems for developers creating code by hand. 
I'm not sure how feasible it would be to create tools to generated 
constraints on behalf of less programming-minded authors. One of the 
problems I have always had with authoring tools is that they singularly 
fail to capture my meaning when I create elements, preferring exact 
specification when relative ones are desired, but I guess this would be 
a problem more easily solved with something rigid like constraints than 
other descriptions of relationships.

Also, is constraint CSS a great departure from the way things are done 
at the moment? Will it be necessary to greatly change the fundamental 
structure of a CSS implementation in order to include them or is there 
some way that aspects of relationships can be added to the current 
model, perhaps with a constraint property? I think we agree that the 
main hurdles at the moment are in getting complete implementations of 
specifications and change should be kept to the minimum practical 
level. Having said that, if change is coming it should be sooner rather 
than later.

Has the WG considered constraints before and found it lacking in any 
way? What problems does it raise for them?

Ben


(q)	Ben Godfrey?
(a)	Web Developer and Designer
	See http://aftnn.org/ for details

Received on Sunday, 27 April 2003 23:10:18 UTC