Re: Proposal: :column pseudo-class

On Mon, 4 Jul 2005, Emrah BASKAYA wrote:
> 
> Assuming that the UA will know what coloumn the element is in as soon as 
> it comes accross the elements opening tag during layout

That is not the case. Well, it is, depending on what you mean.

There are two types of "columns": Structural columns and layout columns.

A <td> is always in a structural column, and that is how the structural 
:column() pseudo-class would indeed work.

However, a <td> can be placed in entirely different layout columns. 
Imagine, e.g.:

   td { display: block; }

(...as opposed to the default,

   td { display: table-cell; }

...)

The pseudo-class David mentioned work work exclusively based on the 
structure of the document, and be unrelated to the layout.

Incidentally, both the layout and the structure can change dynamically. 
The structure can change through DOM calls, the layout through those and 
even simpler things like:

   td:hover { display: table-row; }

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Monday, 4 July 2005 11:41:35 UTC