Re: [cssom] Element size/positioning information

On 4/11/11 3:47 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:
> (I thought getComputedStyle() was supposed to return the used value of
> 'width'?  That should be an actual number for every element, right?
> The only transformation left is the conversion from used->actual,
> which is just pixel rounding.)

getComputedStyle in Gecko returns CSS2.0 computed style, more or less, 
which is neither "computed style" nor "used style" in terms of CSS 2.1.

> Yeah, but that's a separate and more-or-less irrelevant issue.  If
> you're asking for the width of non-rendered elements you're doing
> something wrong.

Welcome to the web!  ;)

>>> Right now, there are two ways to get the position of an element:
>>> elem.offsetTop/Left (gives you coords relative to the element's
>>> positioning root), and
>>> elem.getBoundingClientRect().top/right/bottom/left (post-transform
>>> coords of the bounding box relative to the viewport).
>>
>> Again, that's not actually what those do in all browsers.
>
> I'm assuming the difference is again relative to whether transforms are honored?

For getBoundingClientRect(), yes.  For offset* the behavior is so 
screwed up that I'm not sure there's any one-sentence summary that can 
possibly be correct.

> The problem, of course, is ensuring that the people designing the API
> have a sufficient understanding of CSS to make the right choices here.

Yes, agreed.  I think we need both sets of people here.

-Boris

Received on Monday, 11 April 2011 23:30:08 UTC