Re: [css3-flexbox] overflow property

On 15/05/2012 17:01, Øyvind Stenhaug wrote:
> On Mon, 14 May 2012 21:44:04 +0200, fantasai
> <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net> wrote:
>
>> ====== All changes accumulated below for ease of reference ======
>>
>> In 11.1.1 (Overflow), replace:
>>
>> | Applies to: block containers
>>
>> with:
>>
>> | Applies to: block containers and boxes that establish a formatting
>> context
>
> But "Applies to" is supposed to list "the elements to which the property
> applies" - elements, not boxes. (Whether that is a good idea I'm not sure.)

Indeed.  I raised the general case of this question in the past, and I 
seem to recall that it was generally felt that properties do in fact 
apply to boxes not to elements.  (The spec is a complete muddle on box 
vs elements, as we know.)  Or rather, properties apply to elements but 
get transferred to the boxes that they generate, in some sort of 
undefined way.

17.4 already says:

   # The computed values of properties 'position', 'float', 'margin-*',
   # 'top', 'right', 'bottom', and 'left' on the table element are used
   # on the table wrapper box and not the table box; all other values of
   # non-inheritable properties are used on the table box and not the
   # table wrapper box. (Where the table element's values are not used
   # on the table and table wrapper boxes, the initial values are used
   # instead.)

(Quite what "used on" means is open to question, but I interpret it as 
the mechanism I just described.)

It would make life easier, editorially speaking, if they explicitly 
applied to boxes, as seen in the proposal you quoted.  But given the 
spec's current treatment of elements and boxes I can't say I'm too 
concerned any more; I think the proposal is OK.

Cheers,
Anton Prowse
http://dev.moonhenge.net

Received on Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:21:58 UTC