proposal: div tags affecting other div tags from inside the css

I want to thank everyone who responded to my layout sheet proposal  
(http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Dec/0176.html) with  
such merciful  regard for my computerese-as-a-second-language status. I  
had a look at the suggested links. Duly chastened, I went to study  
http://www.wired.com for tips on cutting edge recommended layouts, and  
found this:

<!-- BEGIN Logo and Search -->
<div id="hdr">
<form id="wnsearch" action="http://r.wired.com/search">
<div id="hdrLeft">
<div id="hdrLogo"><a href="/"><img  
src="http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/2002091422/www.wired.com/ 
news/v/20020914/images/cs6/logo28_wirednews.gif" alt="Wired News"  
title="Wired News logo, links to home" width="256" height="28"  
class="block" /></a></div>
<p class="none"></p>
<div id="hdrSch">
<span class="schLabel"><a name="search"  
class="skiplinks"></a><strong>Search:</strong></span><br />
<select size="1" name="url">
<option  
value="http://search.wired.com/wnews/default.asp?query=">News</option>
<option  
value="http://search.wired.com/animation/ 
default.asp?query=">Animations</option>
<option value="http://search.wired.com/wired/default.asp?query=">Wired  
Magazine</option>
<option  
value="http://www.hotbot.com/ 
?SM=MC&amp;DV=0&amp;LG=any&amp;RD=RG&amp;DC=10&amp;DE=2&amp;_v=2&amp;OPs 
=MDRTP&amp;MT=">HotBot (the Web)</option>
</select>
<input type="text" size="20" name="query" value="" class="sb" />
<input type="submit" value="Search" class="schbtn"/>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<!-- END Logo and Search -->

At which point I concluded that this just as big of a failure to  
separate presentation from content as any table-based layout, although  
it does use fewer tags. I mean, <div id="hdrLeft">? Just put the thing  
in the first cell of a table and be done with it, for heaven’s sake.  
What if they ever decide that all the stuff in hdrLeft ought to be on  
the right? They are going to edit all the affected documents one page  
at a time, or they are going to live with a container called hdrLeft  
that puts the contained content on the right. What if they decide their  
whole hdr ought to be a ftr or a sdbr? Ditto.

I defer to the experts that the layout sheet was a flawed idea, but  
there’s still the problem above. Unless I’ve misunderstood the CSS2  
specs - a highly likely scenario - there’s not a solution in the works.

My next idea is to enable div tags to affect other div tags from inside  
a css document. A three-column layout might look like this (not really,  
but you get the idea).

#wrapper {display: put-everything-side-by-side-in-order-of-appearance}
<div id=”wrapper”>
#hypothetical
#content
#here
</div>

This would make it possible to affect the layout of all linked  
documents right from the css:

#wrapper {display: put-everything-side-by-side-in-order-of-appearance}
<div id=”wrapper”>
#here
#hypothetical
#content
</div>

Or even:

#wired {position:  
what-the-heck-lets-put-this-so-called-hdr-down-the-left-side-today}
<div id=”wired”>
#logo
#search
#interesting-stuff
</div>

Again, thanks to all for their patience. Here’s hoping that this  
expectoration causes the whole sea of CSS to rise, however minutely.  
Otherwise please just hit the Next Message link and pretend I’m not  
here.

Franklin Einspruch
franklin@einspruch.com
http://www.einspruch.com

Received on Tuesday, 21 January 2003 10:02:51 UTC