Re: [css3-fonts] revised definition of font-family

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 9:55 AM, John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com> wrote:
> Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:
>> >  As with other user-defined identifiers, reserved keywords such as
>> >  'inherit', 'initial' or 'default' are not permitted within
>> >  unquoted font family names.  The use of these within unquoted
>> >  family names must be treated as invalid, so font family names
>> >  containing these keywords must be quoted.
>>
>> I think this would read better as a note. It doesn't actually
>> express any new conformance requirements, it's just pointing out
>> existing requirements from other specs.  Maybe something like:
>>
>> "Note: The global reserved keywords (currently 'inherit', 'initial',
>> and 'default', see V&U for details) are not valid user-defined
>> identifiers; attempting to use one of them will either make the
>> property invalid or accidentally invoke the special behavior those
>> keywords represent.  If a font's name actually includes one of those
>> words, specify it as a string instead.
>
> During the F2F, Bert stated that he thought this was a change from
> CSS 2.1, that unquoted font family names like 'foo inherit' should
> not be rejected as invalid.  I don't really feel strongly either way
> but I'm wondering if you see a strong reason to make the use of any
> keyword within a multi-word font family name invalid.

It *is* a change, but fantasai and I believe that it only
unintentionally allowed them before.

The reason to disallow it is to have a consistent story for where you
can use 'inherit' and 'initial'.  "Only as the sole value of a
property" is easier to understand and teach than "only as the sole
value of a property, or a *piece* of a font-family name, unless it
conflicts with the former".

~TJ

Received on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 14:29:36 UTC