Re: [css3-text-layout] New editor's draft - margin-before/after/start/end etc.

On 06/10/2010 09:50 PM, Ishii Koji wrote:
> Thank you for your reply, fantasai.
>
> I had a couple of misunderstanding. First, it looks like I misread the draft
> in opposite. Second, I was assuming IE's draft implementation in opposite.
> I mean, in both, "top" means "right" in vertical system. Sorry about these
> confusions.
>
>> Having "margin-left" correspond to "the top margin" of a page makes no sense.
>
> Does it? I think both makes sense depends on what you're looking at. If you
> think about page, I agree with you. But if you think about text flow, I
> think it can be opposite.
>
> Let me take an example. Set "text-align:left" to<p>. In tb-rl, you'll get
> the paragraph aligned to top. Insert an image with "float:right". It should
> show up at bottom. And then you want to set a margin between the text and
> the image. Should that be "margin-top" or "margin-left"? Isn't "margin-left"
> more consistent with other properties in this case?

This is why in CSS3 'float' and 'text-align' will have 'start' and 'end' as
values, which will map to top/left/bottom/right depending on the writing mode.

We do need to specify what 'text-align: left' means in vertical mode, but
the meaning I would choose there is "the side of the block that left-to-right
text would start on"--which can change depending on the text-orientation and
is not mapped only based on writing-mode. For 'float', if we allow floating
to the top and bottom of the containing block in horizontal writing mode,
then it would make sense for 'left' to retain its directional meaning.

> Another example would be settings a padding to the beginning of the
> paragraph. "text-align:left" and "padding-top", or "text-align:left" and
> "padding-left"?
>
> Several properties are rotated in tb-rl anyway. I was thinking all
> properties are rotated in current draft, but thank you for pointing me
> out that I was wrong. Given the misunderstanding was resolved, I'm in
> the middle of which is right.
>
> But do you agree that both could be the right answer depends on what you
> look at? Am I still missing something more important?

I understand the need for properties that correspond, but I disagree
that "margin-left" should correspond to a margin on the top side of
a box. It is inconsistent with the English, and it is inconsistent
with usage in XSL.

~fantasai

Received on Friday, 11 June 2010 19:03:18 UTC