Re: [css3-multicol] overflow and paging?

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:53 AM, Shelby Moore <shelby@coolpage.com> wrote:
>> http://www.quirksmode.org/css/multicolumn.html
>>
>> I haven't seen that behavior in my site using column-width.  Is it because
>> I am setting both the width and the height of the container? Or is because
>> I have overflow:auto?
>>
>> I really don't like undocumented behavior. Can someone from Mozilla
>> explain?
>
> Okay you were obviously describing case "Test 6" at the above link, which
> I missed.
>
> Here is the relevant part of the spec:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-multicol/#overflow-outside-multicol-elements
>
> That part of the spec exacts says to do what I have posited in this
> thread. Apparently the browsers have mis-interpreted that part of the
> spec. Let me explain.
>
> That part of the spec says that when the height is specified, then "column
> height" must not exceed that height. But go back to the definition of
> "column height", it does not mean that additional columns can not be
> flowed below, rather is only means the maximum height of the columns per
> row of columns.
>
> Thus the browsers have implemented this wrong.  They are supposed to be
> doing what I showed in the diagram of my prior comment in this thread,
> which is that when both the width and height of the container are set, the
> layout must create rows of columns overflowing vertically with maximum
> column height equal to the container's height (minus padding). They are
> overlowing vertically, but they are not setting the column height per the
> spec.
>
> Whereas, when the height is set and not the width, then they are free to
> create more horizontal columns (to fill up the available width of the
> parent of the container), disrepecting any column-count setting. This is
> what David Storey is writing about, and this behavior agrees with the
> spec. If you don't want that behavior David, simply set the width on the
> container element.
>
> If we can agree, I will go post bug reports for Mozilla and Chromium?  I
> will let you others post bug reports at the other browsers.

No, this is incorrect.  The spec is fairly clear about how this is
supposed to act.  There are a number of scenarios, based on what
constraints exist.  None of them involve doing page-like overflow.  If
the height is constrained, then overflow always results in generating
new columns in the "after" direction.  From the spec, section 8.2: "A
declaration that constrains the column height (e.g., using ‘height’)
must be honored, if possible. ... In continuous media, columns that do
not fit within the multicol element are added in the inline
direction."

If height is unconstrained, then overflow columns are never created
(unless column breaks force them), because you can just grow the
height of the element to fit the rest of the content.  This is the
situation you're running into.

To accomplish what you want, which I agree is valuable, will indeed
require a new mode-switch, something like "column-overflow: inline |
block" to specify where overflow columns get created.  It will also
require a way for you to specify the height of the container.  This is
currently difficult for you due to the flexibility/unpredictability of
your layout, but several of the new layout specs will make this easy
to do.

~TJ

Received on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 17:47:43 UTC