Re: Stylings only possible with Tables

> 1. Allow a CAPTION for block elements. (Not strictly CSS, but I'm not
> subscribed to the HTML list.

* http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/
* http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/ (HTML WG)

> 2. Allow designer control over margin collapsing. (Discussed earlier
> this week.)

Interesting point. Though I missed the mentioned discussion, I'm not sure if a new property would really make things easier: Is it harder to understand the "collapsing margins" rules [1] or (presumably) three new properties (including a shorthand property) with three new values, like for example

  margin-collapse: standard|none|inherit
  margin-collapse-top: standard|none|inherit
  margin-collapse-bottom: standard|none|inherit

Would that be helpful? What does it mean for implementations, too?

> 4. Allow designers to constrain the height/width of sets of blocks.
> Tables keep all cells in a row the same height and all cells in a
> column the same width. The table control may even override the
> designer-set values, based on the width of the table and the contents
> of the cells. This can (currently) only be done in tables. Several
> designers have requested a means to perform this magic outside 
> of tables. If properly specified and implemented, this does not even
> need to limit cells to a common row or column.

You can achieve "table-like" visualization (including same height) with the "display" property, for example

  <div />
  <div />

  div { display: table-cell; }

Also, the cascade [2] "already" defines what declarations are applied (unless I misunderstand "may even override the designer-set values").

> I'm waiting for the screams -- "We've never done it that way before!"
> I have more thoughts about use cases, standards, and implementation,
> if any of the above interest anybody.

Great.


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/box.html#collapsing-margins
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/cascade.html#cascade

-- 
Jens Meiert
http://meiert.com/en/

Received on Saturday, 23 June 2007 09:16:08 UTC