On Feb 9, 2009, at 5:23 PM, Robert O'Callahan wrote: > On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> > wrote: > On Feb 9, 2009, at 2:17 PM, "Robert O'Callahan" > <robert@ocallahan.org> wrote: > Authors are not so easily confused by the variation of the name from > some esoteric naming standard as you are suggesting. Results are > what matter. Authors are used to getting the results they want > regardless of the name. For instance, we commonly use 'zoom:1' to > mean 'has-layout:true', and 'position:relative' to mean 'ie-bug- > mode:alternate' or 'control-stacking-order:more', and 'float:left' > to mean 'layout-mode:column', and 'margin-left: auto;margin- > right:auto' to mean 'this-block-align:center', and '*HTML' to mean > '@media (browser:ie6)'. > > Yes, I'm sorry you had to learn all that weird rubbish. Thank you for your empathy. The point is that authors use things like that all the time, and would rather have completely idiotic property names than to have their practical functionality removed. Someday we'll be able to create nice layout columns, in a wide variety of UAs, without using tables or floats to do so. But until then we'd rather use something called "float" to create a column that isn't really floating, than to have that power removed because of the name. So whatever you call the thing that creates drop shadows around boxes, it should have the features that make most sense for accomplishing what authors need it to accomplish (within practical limits, of course), to serve the greatest numbers of their users.
Received on Tuesday, 10 February 2009 03:41:58 UTC