Re: [css-shapes] Allow percentage-based shapes on auto-sized elements

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 2:42 PM, Alan Stearns <stearns@adobe.com> wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> The Basic Shapes section had this sentence:
>
> ---
> If the relevant box of the element
> is dependent on auto sizing
> (i.e., the element's 'width' or
> 'height' property is 'auto'),
> then the percentage values resolve to 0.
> ---
>
>
> This is not the case for how clip-mask uses basic shapes, so it needed to
> at least move out of that section.
>
> This sentence was a punt added because of the mismatch between auto sizing
> on content and a shape-inside affecting that content's composition. It's
> not needed or useful for shape-outside because shape-outside doesn't
> affect auto sizing of its element. Since we only have shape-outside in the
> current draft, I've removed this sentence. Now percentages in shape
> functions will use the 'relevant box' from the element with shape-outside.
>
> When we get to shape-inside, there will still be that mismatch to deal
> with. But a possibly-wrong approximate percentage value will in some cases
> be more useful than 0, which isn't ever a useful interpretation of a
> percentage value. So I think this change improves the present situation
> immensely and does not make the future situation any worse.

I approve of this change for shape-outside.  I disagree that a
sometimes-wrong value is better than an always-useless value.  The
former is just asking for authors to accidentally depend on correct
behavior, while the latter can't ever be depended on.

~TJ

Received on Wednesday, 10 July 2013 22:15:33 UTC