Re: Text selector [was Re: breaking overflow]

On 1/4/10 5:07 PM, Brad Kemper wrote:
> Let's say you have some text that cruises the boundary of a first-line
> pseudo-element. Why should the ::text pseudo-element be more restricted
> than an actual element, such as a SPAN or a B?

The latter is not able to cross the boundary of a :first-line 
pseudo-element without actually being an inline.  Thus the styling on 
elements which can cross the boundary of first-line is non-arbitrary.

I suppose one could do ::text processing before dealing with first-line 
and first-letter, and that might make things similar enough...

> I don't know why, given that you can do arbitrary styling on other
> elements that cross the boundaries of first-line.

As a matter of fact, you cannot.  See above.

> The restriction on not crossing element boundaries was intended to make
> it less complicated and easier to implement.

I suspect that restriction might be needed simply to get it defined in 
an unambiguous way, fwiw.

-Boris