Re: [css3-multicol] column overflow

The desire to create multi-column lists has been in existence for quite a while.

It is not something that can be achieved very well now.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets/browse_frm/thread/e158bdca0ea0ebda/

And it seems that it will continue to be something that is desirable,
but not possible across a wide enough browser base for many years to
come.

Are there any problems with the current specification? How does
implementation in webkit and firefox hold up with the -moz-column-*
and -webkit-column-*? What other implementations support css columns?
Is there a test suite?

Garrett

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 8:21 AM, Garrett Smith <dhtmlkitchen@gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Garrett Smith <dhtmlkitchen@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 9:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [css3-multicol] column overflow
> To: Håkon Wium Lie <howcome@opera.com>
> Cc: www-style-request@w3.org
>
>
> Håkon Wium Lie wrote:
>>
>> Also sprach David Hyatt:
>
>
>> But then you're not really honoring the setting on
>> 'max-height'/'height' -- you're just interpreting
>> 'max-height'/'height' to describe the length of columns rather than
>> the height of the element. In which case, perhaps we should solve this
>> problem with a 'max-column-length' property instead?
>>
>
> Do you mean max-column-count?
>
> The width of each column is determined by its in-flow content.
>
> The number of columns could be determined automatically.
>
> Suppose you have dynamic data and you want this data to be displayed
> as a list. Now suppose the list is sometimes very long and usually
> very narrow. When it is long and narrow, you want it displayed in
> columns, for easy reading and to conserve space. You want multiple
> columns when the list is very long and narrow.
>
> The visual design goal is to have the list displayed in columns, not
> too tall, as wide as possible, but no wider than the containing block
> area (width: auto). The data has variable numbers of items and items
> have variable numbers of characters and is localized. To meet the "not
> wider than the containing block area" so the number of columns desired
> could be reduced to two or even one to accommodate for wide items.
>
> one      fourteen     twenty-seven
> two      fifteen      twenty-eight
> three    sixteen      twenty-nine
> four     seventeen    thirty
> five     eighteen     thirty-one
> six      nineteen     thirty-two
> seven    twenty       thirty-three
> eight    twenty-one   thirty-four
> nine     twenty-two   thirty-five
> ten      twenty-three thirty-six
> eleven   twenty-four  thirty-seven
> twelve   twenty-five  thirty-eight
> thirteen twenty-six   thirty-nine
>
> The desired layout is to have items rendered as columns following the
> direction (ltr here).
>
> one
> two
> three
>
>
> and not:
>
> one two three
>
> Something like:
>
> <ol style="min-column-count: 1;
>          max-column-count: 3;
>          column-gap: 20px;
>          list-style-position: inside;
>          max-height: 14em">
>  <li>one</li>
>  ...
>
>
> Garrett
>
>> -h&kon
>>              Håkon Wium Lie                          CTO °þe(R)ª
>> howcome@opera.com                  http://people.opera.com/howcome
>>
>>
>

Received on Sunday, 14 December 2008 07:45:06 UTC