RE: Proposal: Minor 'text-transform' property revision

Ernest Cline wrote:
>  > [Original Message]
>  > From: Jens Meiert <jens.meiert@erde3.com>
>>
>  >     h1 { text-transform: lowercase capitalize; }
>>
>>  The 'text-transform' [1] value could simply be changed to
>>
>  >     uppercase | [lowercase || capitalize] | none | inherit
>
>I presume you want it so as to be able to turn a plain text:
>"THIS IS A HEADLINE THAT WAS TYPED IN ALL CAPS"
>into: "This Is A Headline That Was Typed In All Caps".
>but Ideally, when such a plain text was placed into markup,
>with the headline placed into an element, it would also be turned
>into lowercase as appropriate.  If it isn't placed in a separate
>element, then applying such a transform would make some letters
>that weren't capitalized, capitals, thus turning:
>"THIS IS A HEADLINE THAT WAS TYPED IN ALL CAPS
>And this is the text that follows it." into:
>"This Is A Headline That Was Typed In All Caps
>And This Is The Text That Follows It."

Isn't that simply a proper markup issue?  If you don't want the 
following material transformed, don't apply the transform property to 
it.

It seems to me the goal of the initial suggestion is just to 
implement title case, which would take whatever you fed it and give 
you lowercase words with capital first letters.  (Or, better, will 
make exceptions for short words of little importance, such as "of", 
"the", "a", etc. which do not start the phrase - e.g. "The Quick 
Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dog.")

This strikes me as significantly more difficult to implement than 
simply upper- and lowercase, which can operate on a 
character-by-character basis without the need for complex heuristics. 
Besides which, I don't think there is a great need to force browser 
makers to do something content producers should really be doing.  If 
it's a title, mark it up as one, including putting it in the proper 
case.  All caps or all lowercase are often used for simple visual 
effect.  Title case is much more a question of proper content, IMO.

-Adam Kuehn

Received on Thursday, 26 February 2004 15:17:57 UTC