[css21] aligning HTML and XHTML

I was wondering, now that CSS 2.1 is at last call again, if it could be  
changed in such a way that HTML and XHTML would be more aligned. From what  
I recall, (except for issues that are really different like  
case-sensitivity) 'overflow' and 'background' propagation from the HTML  
"BODY" element (which is a first child of the root element called "HTML")  
are the differences.

Would it not be much easier for authors if the "body" element, when it is  
a child of the root element, "html", both in the  
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" namespace, is "magical" as well? So that  
there are fewer differences between XHTML and HTML in terms of CSS?

It seems user agents already treat HTML elements as if they were in the  
XHTML namespace in terms of CSS and for some cases it would make safe  
serialization from the DOM to a "real document" easier too. (When you add  
namespaced elements and attributes inside a HTML document.)

Although most user agents implementing both XHTML and HTML (to some  
extend) have correctly implemented what is currently in the CSS 2.1  
specification it would not be that hard too align the two given the above  
and it would make migration a bit easier.

(I know this is far too late to be a last call comment, but I wanted to  
mention the idea, at least.)

Kind regards,

Anne van Kesteren


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Saturday, 12 November 2005 00:59:49 UTC