Re: Request for Comments: Pointer Events spec's touch-action CSS property

On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 5:24 PM, Jacob Rossi <Jacob.Rossi@microsoft.com> wrote:
> The property acts as a filter on the behaviors a UA is allowed to perform. It doesn't inherit because it has its own processing model (I'll update the spec to remove "inherit" from the grammar--I didn't know the convention).  I hear the feedback that the spec text for this model is unclear. I think, perhaps, a more algorithmic approach might be better:
>
> Run these steps prior to dispatching the pointerdown event for a touch:
> 1. Set ELEMENT to the target of the pointerdown.
> 2. If the value of touch-action for ELEMENT is "none" then terminate these steps.
> 3. If ELEMENT is capable of a performing a touch behavior (such as panning or zooming), then begin considering this touch for that possible behavior and abort these steps.
> 4. If ELEMENT is the root of the document, terminate these steps.
> 5. Set ELEMENT to the current ELEMENT's immediate parent and repeat steps 2-5.

This is golden, very easy to understand.  Now that I know what it's
doing, I see that it's pretty easy to write out in prose too:

When a user touches an element, the effect of that touch is determined
by the 'touch-action' property and the default touch behaviors on the
element and its ancestors.  To determine the effect of a touch, find
the nearest ancestor (starting from the element itself) that either
has a default touch behavior or that has "touch-effect: none".  If the
nearest ancestor has a default touch behavior, execute that.  If the
nearest ancestor has "touch-effect: none", do nothing.

~TJ