Re: [css3-fonts] opentype font feature support

On Mar 15, 2010, at 8:59 AM, Thomas Phinney wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 11:52 PM, John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com> wrote:
>> The keyword 'normal' is commonly used in CSS to indicate 'default', it's
>> the value a property will typically assume when it's not specified
>> explicitly.  I realize 'default' might seem more natural to some but
>> consistency with other CSS properties is important.
> 
> Is it assumed that the effect of "default" can vary between UAs, or is
> the meaning of "default" usually specified by CSS?

There is no CSS-specific meaning to "default". Many properties have an "initial" value, which is the value to use if there is no other value given from the cascade or inherited. If a property uses a 'normal' keyword as one of its possible values,  it is often (but not always) the initial value (CSS defines this on a per-property basis). In addition, a UA may have a UA style sheet, which establishes some defaults for various document elements. For instance, even though 'font-weight' has an initial value of 'normal', an Web browser would have a style sheet in it that sets 'font-weight' to a non-normal value for STRONG elements and B elements:

strong, b { font-weight: bolder; }