RE: 'initial' | 'inherit' inconsistency

At 4:44 PM +0000 10/29/10, Brian Manthos wrote:
>I was left with two primary questions after reading this thread:
>
>(1) "And then there's the cases where properties explicitly define 
>an 'initial' that might be at odds with the universal 'initial' that 
>Values & Units defines."
>
>Is this intentional?

    Probably not.  The properties in question are from a 2002 draft 
(<http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-linebox/>; see 'inline-box-align' and 
'drop-initial-value') currently of low priority.
    The really fascinating part is that if you go to the Properties 
Index (http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-linebox/#properties) it states at 
the beginning "In addition to the specified values, all properties 
take the initial and inherit values" which means the module itself 
defines properties whose values have two different 'initial' 
keywords.  It doesn't even have to fall back to module collision; it 
handles the collision all on its own.

>   Are the cases that do so incorrect and due for an edit?

    It depends on whether it's useful to revisit and update so old a 
module.  I have to assume the cases are incorrect.

>(2) Which properties do not allow initial and/or inherit?

    Well, that's the question, isn't it?  If we believe the Values and 
Units module, there are no such properties.  But there are modules 
which, due to the way they're written, heavily imply otherwise.  Some 
of them even fail to state or establish via reference that their 
properties accept one or both.

>If the answers are anything but (1) "no, yes" and (2) "none", then 
>the 
>Name/Value/Initial/AppliesTo/Inherited/Percentages/Media/ComputedValue 
>block might need a new field or two.

    That's another way to address the problem, and I'd be okay with it.

-- 
Eric A. Meyer (eric@meyerweb.com)     http://meyerweb.com/

Received on Friday, 29 October 2010 18:41:57 UTC