Elika's alternative proposal to Koji's line grid, as discussed in Kyoto

Hi,

As discussed in the last telco, I would like to see a written down version
of Elika's alternative proposal for line grid.

As I recall it, during the kyoto f2f, we spent a fair amount of time
discussing the requirements and use cases for having a line grid, and on
what was meant by a line gird.

The item was originally on the agenda to discuss a proposal from Koji
(http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-line-grid/) that addresses these issues.
However, while we did spend a lot of time on why this was needed, we
hardly spent any time looking at Koji's proposal.

As the discussion on what this was all about dragged on, Elika proposed a
different way to solve the problem. Because the proposal both addressed
the CJK needs for which line grid was being introduced, and benefited
layouts that use floats or multicol in any language, there was a
reasonably quick agreement from the group that despite corner cases
that need clarification, this appeared to be a good way forward.

Currently, the proposal only exists in the minutes of the kyoto f2f (look
for "fantasai presents a new proposal" in the Thursday notes), mixing the
proposal itself with questions about it from the group.

Koji pointed out that his proposal had two parts: one that addressed the
regular placement of lines, and one that addressed the regular placement
of characters within a line, and that Elika's proposal only replaced the
former. (look for "Another request in this area, for a character-based
grid" in the Thursday notes). Koji's CSS Line grid Module includes 3
alternative proposals to solve that need (sections 3.4.1, 3.4.2, and
3.4.3).

The group resolved: "Eventually we'll have one Line spec, which includes
current Linebox and Linegrid."

While it is not very clear in the minutes, my understanding was that we
meant that Fantasai's proposal, together with one the 3 proposals from
Koji for regular character placements within a line, was what should
eventually be merged with Linebox.

I am fine with that conclusion, but what troubles me is that there is
currently no written form (other than f2f minutes) about Elika's proposal,
despite the general agreement that it can probably replace a large part of
Koji's proposal, which does have a draft. It would also benefit from
having a name other than "Elika's alternative proposal to Koji's line
grid, as discussed in Kyoto".

We are probably not in a rush to do the merge with Linebox, but having an
editor's draft for Elika's proposal, or having it included in Koji's
document, either replacing what is already there, or listed as a possible
alternative, would make further discussions and evaluations a lot easier.

  - Florian

Received on Monday, 4 July 2011 06:44:46 UTC