Re: [css3-regions][css3-exclusions][css3-gcpm][css3-positioning] RE: Examples of exclusions

Hi Håkon,

On Dec 9, 2011, at 12:59 AM, Håkon Wium Lie wrote:

When I go to the list of use cases for Regions and Exclusions, which
are linked from the Regions WD:

 http://wiki.csswg.org/spec/css3-regions/regions-use-cases

I see many fancy examples, which presumably are in scope?

For example, you write:

 The following image illustrates the need to be able to flow content
 around an arbitrarily shaped area.

Shouldn't you also have an example, with Steve's pull-quote image,
where you say:

 The following image illustrates the need to be able to insert an
 element between two columns.

Sorry if I am missing the obvious, but I do not see that on the regions-use-cases page so I am not sure what you are referring to. Can you clarify?

Even if we had an example with columns and an exclusion in the middle on that page, which is something we want to be able to achieve in CSS, I do not think it means it has to be in the CSS regions spec alone. CSS regions would help achieving it, but that may be in combination with other modules. A lot of the changes between April and now in the CSS regions effort has been to isolate the different issues and the initial effort has been split into multiple, related but disjoint efforts:

- regions: addresses the issue of flowing content into a chain of boxes
- exclusions & shapes: addresses the issue of flowing content around or into arbitrary shapes.
- fragmentation: addresses the issues of breaking content that flows between multiple boxes (applies to pages, column boxes and regions)
- positioning: enhances positioning schemes (e.g., with position:center)

I think it is good that we separate the issues in clearly separate problems to solve. I think/agree we also need to make sure they work well together.

The point that Rossen and I have been trying to make in the previous emails is that the layout of regions, in the various examples, are examples of how regions can be positioned and the way they are positioned does not have a big importance for the module, because we see it is an orthogonal problem. So regions can be positioned with grid layout, as Tab provided an example of, or absolutely positioned, as Rossen illustrated. We could position regions with other layout schemes (e.g., flex boxes). That problem or positioning the region boxes is orthogonal to the issue of associating a set of region boxes with content that flows through them.

Does that make sense? It seems that we still have a disconnect, but I am not able to see what it is.

Kind regards,
Vincent