[basic-box] More comments

Section 7. "The 'width' and 'height' properties"

The paragraphs after <length>, <percentage>, and 'auto' speak only of  
width. If they refer to height as well, they need to say so explicitly.


Section 6.2 'Collapsing margins'

There is a great deal of complexity in the algorithms (and will be in  
correct implementations) for collapsing margins, but there is no  
option for the designers to turn this collapsing OFF! What if the  
designers want to stack margins rather than collapsing them? This is  
a valid use case. Or, since margins are controllable by the  
designers, they can be set to values which produce the desired  
spacing without collapsing, eliminating the complexity of collapsing  
margins completely. Now, I do not propose eliminating margin  
collapsing, as it has valid uses. But so does using the margins  
without collapsing them.

Please reconsider and add 'margin-collapse' properties to the  
specification.

Also, the specification is not clear whether the side margins  
collapse as well. In CSS 2.1, only top/bottom margins collapse. Does  
this change for CSS 3? Or should this be part of the 'margin- 
collapse' properties. (E.g., allow 'margin-collapse' to have values  
of 'all', 'none', 'normal', 'tb', 'lr', and 'inherit', for example.)


Section 7 refers to 'box-sizing' but there is no explanation or  
reference. If this specification is really about the basic box model,  
it needs to at least refer to the definition for 'box-sizing'.


Section 2 refers to borders, padding, margins, and content area.  
There are sections to explain padding and margins. Should the general  
structure of the document have a major section which speaks of the  
content area and then explains 'width', 'height', etc., to help  
readers understand?

Also, why is there nothing about borders? (Yes, there is a separate  
specification for borders, as well as border collapsing in the tables  
module.) At least point readers in the direction of those modules.  
Better still, combine all border explanations into the 'basic box  
model' specification and point to differences in other modules with  
an explanation. I believe that, in this case, separating different  
functionality for borders into separate modules will lead to  
confusion and missing features which would be easier to detect if the  
explanation of border properties were all in one place.


James Elmore

Received on Wednesday, 26 September 2007 21:45:51 UTC