positioning and sizing an element relatively to any other element

Max Kanat-Alexander has written "Dear CSS", an article [1] advocating
for better positioning and sizing, in particular for positioning and
sizing of any element relatively to any other element.
This is something I have been myself calling for for ages. I even wrote
back in december 2002 a proposal [2] to extend current CSS positioning.
Another extension to arbitrary reference elements could be done using
selectors on the right hand-side of declarations (private joke for CSS
dinosaurs: 19 strikes back again!!!!).

Warning, I am not saying this has no impact on the layout and can easily
done w/o effect on the progressive rendering. I'm only saying

   (a) this seems to me a natural progress of CSS towards a better layout
       model
   (b) that would help Web authors/designers solve sooo many problems
       that require complexity and/or hacks today
   (c) Amaya and grif before it already did it with the P language...


[1] http://avatraxiom.livejournal.com/101850.html
[2] http://daniel.glazman.free.fr/weblog/position__new.html

</Daniel>

Received on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 13:55:21 UTC