RE: [css3-page] Is auto a page identifier or not?

L. David Baron wrote:

> Not as far as I know.  Keywords are identifiers -- they're 
> just identifiers that are known in advance and have special 
> meaning for some properties.
> 
> Anything else would be a complete disaster for forward-compatibility.
> 

Okay, so the page name in the @page is an identifier and auto is an
identifier. I still think it the description of the @page rule should remain
as it is now and not as Ernest suggested:

Ernest wrote:
> [ current description ]
> Name: 	page
> Value: 	auto | <identifier>
> Initial: 	auto
> 
> becomes:
> 
> Name: 	page
> Value: 	<identifier>
> Initial: 	auto

Apparently  auto is a polymorphic (I had to slip that word it)
keyword/identifier that, as you suggest is a synonym for the unnamed page
context.  This allows you to say "page: auto" instead of "page: " 

It would appear that 
1. any well-formed identifier can be used a page name. 
2. the identifier auto means when used in the page property the unknown page
name.
3. you can say something like "@page display" and "page: display" without
any ill effects

So where does that leave the original issue?
Ernest wrote:

> @page auto { /*A set of rules for unnamed pages */}
> 
> Will it apply as the comment indicates or will it not apply
> to anything since "auto" is not an identifier?

The answer depends on how auto is interpreted in the page command.  @page
auto defines a page named auto that cannot be referenced since page: auto is
the unnamed page. 

We could say that auto, when used in the context of "@page auto" references
the unnamed page, or we could say it references the page "auto" that cannot
be otherwise used--this seems wasteful and unusable.

I vote for making "@page auto" reference the unnamed page.

 -- Jim Bigelow

Received on Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:20:26 UTC