RE: [css3-multicol] pseudo-algorithm

> On Feb 10, 2011, at 4:22 PM, Sylvain Galineau <sylvaing@microsoft.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > While it can be argued to be what the author wanted - the column-width
> > is auto but column-count and column-gap are explicitly specified so
> > the algorithm makes every effort to honor the author's request
> 
> That's the argument that seems most compelling to me.

OK.

> 
> > - I'm not sure this is helpful as it means column-width:auto might
> > yield poorer result when, for instance, the user snaps/tiles his
> > window to half the screen space.
> 
> If I had 10 auto-width columns that got very narrow when the window got
> half as big, then at least it is not at all surprising. I wouldn't want my
> values ignored because the browser thought it knew better than to give me
> what I asked for. I should have thought of the ramifications before I
> tried to squeeze so many columns into a flexible-width layout. And isn't
> that what media queries on width are for?

You are entering this branch of the algorithm *because* you can't get what
you asked for. At this point, what is more important ? That the browser mindlessly
aims to get as many columns as possible, even if it results in the vast majority
of the multicol element being empty ? Or should it try to honor both the number of
columns you want and respect your content - never mind the user's ability to 
consume it - before it respects intra-column space ?

There are many good reasons why the author may want to use media queries. But he
shouldn't have to because multicol fallback in overconstrainted cases looks horrible
by design.

Received on Friday, 11 February 2011 02:26:01 UTC