Media Groups as Media Queries

I came across some comments on a website, discussing media queries (I forget
where unfortunately) and one person (who I think is on this list?) commented
that the current system of having a media type per category of device wasn't
particularly author-friendly. The argument was that, for example, if a set
of styles applied to paged media at the moment the author would have to place
them in
   @media print, projection { ... }
If a new paged device was added, then the @media rule is no longer exhaustive.
The poster suggested that it would be more useful to use the media *groups*
defined in CSS2.1 [1]. E.g.
   @media paged { ... }
would take care of both of these and any future devices that use a paged
display. I thought this was a very good suggestion, so I went digging through
our archives to see if anyone else had brought it up.

The idea was brought up as a last call comment in 2002:
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2002Feb/0151.html
but I couldn't find a record of any wg discussion about it.

David Baron also mentioned it on the wg list last year:
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2006AprJun/0144.html

I think we should add these as possible media queries:
   static / interactive
   continuous / paged
   visual / tactile / aural(?)

I think only static and interactive are mutually exclusive. It is theoretically
possible to have a simultaneously tactile, visual, and aural presentation. It
is definitely possible to have both paged and continuous presentation, as Opera
does this in its presentation mode.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/media.html#media-groups

~fantasai

Received on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 00:24:21 UTC