Re: [CSS21] Trivial editorial issues with 9.5 (Floats)

On Monday 05 October 2009, L. David Baron wrote:
> On Monday 2009-10-05 18:34 +0200, Anton Prowse wrote:
> > Some trivial editorial issues with 9.5 (Floats):[1]

> > Issue 3:
> >
> >   # Any content in the current line before a floated box is
> > reflowed in
> >   # the first available line on the other side of the 
> > float.
> >
> > When is the first available line anything other than the current
> > line? If never, then s/first available/same/
>
> This sentence doesn't make sense to me either way; I'm not sure what
> it's trying to say.

I know what it is trying to say, but I agree that "other side" isn't 
very clear unless you happen to have the same mental model of floats as 
the authors of this paragraph many years back...

The context is as follows. Imagine a line of text, where ### is an 
image:

    One two three ### four five six.

Now float that image to the left:

    #### One two three four five six.

and note that the words "One two three" have moved to the *other side* 
of the image!

Yes, that is not very precise language. It talks about moving, but 
nothing moves in CSS and the text never was at the left side to begin 
with. But as you can see in other instances in that same section of the 
spec, some people naturally visualize CSS as a process that moves boxes 
into place one by one, while others think of CSS as a formula that 
yields a single solution for all boxes all at once.

The phrase "first available" is there to remind us that the content on 
that hypothetical "current line" that existed before we moved the float 
into place, may not all fit on the same line anymore afterwards. E.g., 
if the result is

    ###  One
    ###  two
    ###  three
    four five
    six.

then the first available line box for the word "two" was not 
the "current line," but the line after it.

> > [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/visuren.html#floats



Bert
-- 
  Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/
  http://www.w3.org/people/bos                               W3C/ERCIM
  bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
  +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Thursday, 8 October 2009 17:00:06 UTC