Re: [css regions] Region "balancing"

On 10/13/11 12:05 PM, "David Hyatt" <hyatt@apple.com> wrote:

> On Oct 13, 2011, at 1:07 PM, Vincent Hardy wrote:
> 
>> Hi Dave,
>> 
>> On Oct 13, 2011, at 10:51 AM, David Hyatt 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."
>>> 
>>> dave
>>> (hyatt@apple.com)
>> 
>> This seems like a nice feature, but I have a few questions:
>> 
>> a. if I have laid you my text through 20 regions, the balancing will require
>> that I balance the 20 regions if things do not fit exactly on the last one.
>> Isn't this going to be quite expensive?
>> 
> 
> Potentially sure. It can be expensive for columns too.

This use case doesn't make sense to me. If I'm laying out two regions per
page in a page template and the content runs for ten pages, I do not want
all 20 regions to balance. I want pages 1-19 to lay out as much content fits
on the page, then have the two columns on page 20 balance against each
other.

This is basically why I've wanted to be able to specify columns in regions.
I'd rather have a chain of 10 2-column regions where pages 1-19 fill up,
then the balancing on page 20 is handled by existing multicol heuristics for
the remaining content.

>> b. for paginated content, I assume we would say that balancing only happens
>> on the last page, right?
> 
> No. Balancing can happen as a result of forced breaks as well.
> 
> dave
> (hyatt@apple.com)
> 
> 
>

Received on Thursday, 13 October 2011 19:38:30 UTC