Re: [css3-flexbox] getting multiline flexbox back into the spec

On 4/06/2011 4:05 PM, Alex Mogilevsky wrote:
> It is true that two-dimensional flow order can be represented using
> writing-mode property.


Can you define two-dimensional flow order?


> There are reasons to use writing-mode for
> defining flexbox orientation and direction:
>
> 1) flexbox orientation is UI decision, separate of text flow
> direction.


UI use (or should use) the attributes dir="ltr" or dir="rtl".


> In an English page you can have a mix of horizontal and
> vertical flexboxes, so you will have to frequently switch direction
> on flexbox and flexbox items to have correct text rendering


You say, "switch direction". What direction are you talking about?


> 2) default direction is commonly derive from writing mode,


No, the default direction is derived from base direction.

http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-writing-modes/#text-direction


> and changes
> with it.


The thing that changes is block flow direction.

http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-writing-modes/#text-flow

   | The block flow direction is the direction in which
   | block-level boxes stack and the direction in which
   | line boxes stack within a block container. The
   |‘writing-mode’ property determines the block flow
   | direction.


> For example, English menu goes either top to bottom or left
> to right.


Correct.


>  Arabic menu goes top to bottom or right to left.


Top to bottom but aligned to the right. (LTR has a top to bottom menu on 
the left)


> If
> 'direction' or 'writing-mode' property has to be used for flexbox
> direction, large set of use cases will become harder to localize


The CSS 'direction' property should not be used to set base direction. 
This is the role of the attributes dir="ltr" or dir="rtl".




-- 
Alan Gresley
http://css-3d.org/
http://css-class.com/

Received on Sunday, 5 June 2011 14:33:38 UTC