Re: [css3-values] unitless zero lengths inside 'calc()'

Sorry for the long delay.  I forget things in my inbox, then go
through a spasm of Inbox0 guilt.

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 29, 2010, at 10:48 AM, "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2010/12/29 Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com>:
>>> What is the harm of having unitless zero allowed? The benefit is that authors would not need to remember a special exception to unitless zeros that can be applied everywhere else that lengths are accepted.
>>
>> It's ambiguous.  What's calc(0), a number or a length?
>
> If I had my druthers, it would depend on the property, just like anything else that accepts unitless zeros. If it was 'width: calc(0)' then it would be a length. However, since the spec starts out with saying that it can be used only as a length, then that is how it would end up.

Hm.  I guess that's a consistent position, though I don't see a
particular benefit from it.


>> Is calc(0 +
>> 2em) valid?
>
> Sure,

Okay, so you're leaning on the existing treatment of zero as an
implicitly-unitted length when appropriate.


>> What about calc(0 + 3)?
>
> Again, if not for the first sentence of the calc spec, I would say "only if the property accepted '3' as a value; 'width: calc(0 + 3)' would be ignored, but 'z-index: calc(0 + 3)' should be fine." However, because of that sentence, I'd have to say that the result of '3' is not a length, so "no".

Makes sense.


>> In calc(2em * 0 + 0), would 0 be
>> a number both times, or a number the first time and a length the
>> second?
>
> Mathmatically, it should be the same as '2 * em * 0 + 0'.

You're assuming that multiplying a length by 0 switches it back to the
ambiguous maybe-a-number-maybe-a-length state, so it's valid to then
add either a number or length to it?

> I would allow it, and also 'calc(2em * 1 + 1)'.

I don't understand this one at all.  "2em * 1" gives a length.  How do
you add a number and a length?  Do you want to assume that unitless
numbers, when added or subtracted from a length, should be interpreted
as being in the same unit as the length?  If so, how do you resolve
"calc(2em + 10% + 1)"  Is that different from "calc(2em + 1 + 10%)" or
"calc(1 + 2em + 10%)" or "calc(10% + 2em + 1)"?

~TJ

Received on Friday, 21 January 2011 22:03:20 UTC