[CSS2.1] Absolute positioning versus inlines and width

According to http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/CR-CSS21-
20040225/visudet.html#containing-block-details an absolutely 
positioned element can get its containing block from an inline 
positioned ancestor, which should then be used to calculate the 
width. When testing the below:

   <p>Some text <span style="position: relative"> in relative span 
    <span style="position: absolute; top:10px"> Absolute item that is 
long enough to be quite concerned with the width of the containing 
block</span>
    After abs pos in relative</span>
   </p>

It seems like all three browsers i tested used the relative non-
replaced inline to set the position of the child absolute (in 
somewhat different ways), but none seem to use the method described 
in CSS 2.1 for setting the width:
 
"If the 'direction' is 'ltr', the top and left of the containing 
block are the top and left content edges of the first box generated 
by the ancestor, and the bottom and right are the bottom and right 
content edges of the last box of the ancestor. "

This seems wise to me, since i believe the above definition might 
yield a negative containing block width. I suppose the above is just 
meant to show what edges the values left/right/top/bottom refers to, 
but doesn't that suggest that http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/CR-CSS21-
20040225/visudet.html#abs-non-replaced-width lacks the clarification 
on how to handle this case? Or am i missing something obvious here? 

Thanks,
 /Staffan

Received on Wednesday, 17 March 2004 13:01:53 UTC