Re: [CSS2.1] col attributes: XHTML and CSS inconsistency?

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote:
> You say that :nth-col() would allow us to apply arbitrary properties
> to cells.  Apparently this means that pseudoclass resolution happens
> (or at least, *can* happen) at some time after table layout.

Where "table layout" means "parsing the HTML table elements and
determining the semantic relationship between them without considering
any CSS rules", yes.

> My
> question is if it is possible to cause this same sort of magic to
> happen automatically.  It doesn't depend on html tables at all - my
> question applies to any grouping of table-column and table-cell
> elements.

The point is that this syntax would *not* apply to arbitrary
table-column elements.  It would *only* apply to HTML <col> (or,
presumably, equivalent syntax in other markup languages).  This is why
it actually works, because the HTML structure is known before CSS
starts working.

> During the initial pass through the CSS engine, it doesn't
> know what cells are in what column.  Afterwards, though, it *does*,
> and can then cause some special table-magic inheritance.  It wouldn't
> be any more magic than applying this pseudoclass, would it?  After
> initial style resolution, trickle table-column styles down to their
> corresponding table-cells.

That's precisely what this proposal *doesn't* do.

Received on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 20:47:25 UTC