Re: [css3-flexbox] absolutely positioned flex item should not have side effect on space distribution

On Jul 18, 2012, at 7:44 AM, "Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu" <kennyluck@csail.mit.edu> wrote:

> (12/07/12 0:33), Alex Mogilevsky wrote:
>> It is possible to define it that way, it was that way at some point.
>> However there are some non-trivial details to be defined, the
>> position in the middle of the space seems as random as any other, it
>> is more complicated to implement, all for the benefit of something
>> that nobody could come up with a sensible use case for.
> 
> Do we have use cases for the 'auto' location of a absolutely positioned
> flex item then? And what are they?

Well, for non-flex situations, I sometimes create display-when-parent-is-hovered absolutely positioned help bubbles. They are often at the right side of the containing block, by using 'right:100%', but vertically positioned relative to the parent element (such as a one line, static-positioned block) by using 'top:auto; bottom:auto'. So, I could imagine the usefulness of doing something similar inside a flex box.

> I mean, why can't we just say there
> are no placeholders and the 'auto' location is that of the flex container?
> 
> This is alternative proposal A.
> 
>> There are more details to be defined if we were taking this route.
>> What happens if there are multiple positioned items with
>> placeholders?
> 
> Here is a concrete proposal B:
> 
> Add the following prose to each of the description of 'space-between'
> and 'space-around':
> 
>  | In the above description, flex items generated by placeholders left
>  | by absolutely positioned children of the flex container are ignored
>  | and spaces between non-placeholder flex items are added as if half
>  | of the space is added to both non-placeholder flex items. Note:
>  | This means, for example, a placeholder in between two flex items
>  | would be located exactly in the middle of the margin edges.
> 
> Examples ('space-between'):
> 
> A-|-B--C
> 
> A-||-B--C
> 
> |A--B--C|
> 
> where '|' stands for placeholders and '-' stands for the "half spaces"
> added.
> 
>> What happens if the position element is at the end of a line in
>> multiline flexbox – which line does it go to?
> 
> The previous line. Because the prose takes an effect after flex items in
> a flex line is determined, and a flex item of zero flex basis would
> always goes to the previous line.
> 
> I don't think it is hard to define, but I don't how hard it is in terms
> of implementation.
> 
>> We have chosen the simplest approach in the case where other
>> approaches involved non-zero additional complexity and no
>> demonstrated benefits.
> 
> With the "no change" proposal being C. My preference is
> 
>  B > A > C
> 
> I am curious what Web developers would prefer though, in particular A vs. C.

I also prefer B.

Received on Wednesday, 18 July 2012 16:04:17 UTC