Re: comments on CSS3 Selectors from XSL Working Group

On Thursday 2006-01-26 15:28 -0700, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen wrote:
> We would also like to draw your attention to the opening
> paragraph of the abstract in that draft. It says, in part:
> 
>    Selectors have been optimized for use with HTML and XML, and
>    are designed to be usable in performance-critical code.
> 
> We object to the characterization expressed in the above
> sentence. It could be construed as implying that CSS selectors
> are somehow superior to all other forms of selection in terms of
> performance.  There is nothing in the specification to support
> this claim.  It appears to have been added solely for effect.
> Please remove.

I would object to removing this without an appropriate replacement.  I
suggest the following:

  Selectors have been optimized for testing a single HTML or XML element
  against a set of selectors rather than testing a single selector
  against a set of elements; this type of use is expected to be usable
  in performance-critical code, even when performed frequently.

-David

-- 
L. David Baron                                <URL: http://dbaron.org/ >
           Technical Lead, Layout & CSS, Mozilla Corporation