Re: [css regions] Region "balancing"

On 10/13/11 10:51 AM, "David Hyatt" <hyatt@apple.com> wrote:

> It seems like regions need a balancing feature similar to columns. I don't
> think it necessarily has to affect the region sizes themselves, but it seems
> like we at least need the ability to balance flow thread content across some
> regions.
> 
> The canonical example I can think of is if regions are used in conjunction
> with @page grid-template rules to create a multi-column layout. You want the
> content on the last page to be balanced across the two columns of that page.
> The fact that the regions might be as tall as the page is fineŠ. you just want
> the flow thread content to balance.
> 
> I don't think we have to have balancing that sets an object's height like
> columns do, but it does seem like we need to be able to say something like
> "balance the content inside the regions if there's extra room left over."

I've thought about this, too. But I'm not sure that balancing fits into the
regions model. In your example it sounds like what you're asking for is to
balance the last two regions only, and leave the regions in previous pages
alone. So we'd need a way of specifying a subset of regions to balance
across. I'm assuming that this subset would need to be contiguous in the
region chain, and perhaps have to be the last set of regions in the chain.
But what if the named flow is an entire book that's broken up into chapters,
and what you want balanced are the two regions on the last page of each
chapter?

I'm not sure what balancing means in the general regions case. There may be
regions with different heights or widths where it's just not possible to
distribute content evenly between regions.

Thanks,

Alan

Received on Thursday, 13 October 2011 18:12:44 UTC