Re: [css3-multicol] The purpose of multi-column layout?

From: Robert O'Callahan
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 9:36 PM
To: Andrew Fedoniouk
Cc: HåkonWium Lie ; www-style@w3.org
Subject: Re: [css3-multicol] The purpose of multi-column layout?

>> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Andrew Fedoniouk 
>> <news@terrainformatica.com> wrote:
>>
>> See:
>>
>> http://www.terrainformatica.com/w3/test-columns-floats.htm
>>
>> http://www.terrainformatica.com/w3/test-columns-floats-fixed.htm
>>
>> either in FF or GC.
>>
>
> Usually such paginations require some
> manual tweaking - even content reordering/editing.
> Automatic column balancing of arbitrary content
> is a challenging task.
>
> We're choosing the minimum column height consistent with the rules of
> CSS. If CSS offered more flexibility in placing floats, we could
> probably find a better layout automatically.

I saw once how professionals are making-up real magazine -
I doubt that CSS will be able to do that in foreseeable
future. Content analysis, DOM reordering, etc.

Actually algorithm that Gecko is using at the moment is
good enough.  It should be just more options like
horizontal/vertical block flow with wrapping on rows
columns, covering cases explained by Håkon Wium Lie.

I really think that multi-column, flexbox family, templates
are  all sides of the same coin - different layout managers.
And layout manager type deserves its own property.

E.g. I have added flow:stack recently to cover
tabs alike layouts and pretty interesting
position-static-but-freely-positioned schemas.
But that is slightly different story indeed.

-- 
Andrew Fedoniouk

http://terrainformatica.com

Received on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 05:39:40 UTC