[css-counter-styles-3] 'width' descriptors: counting symbols vs. characters

Hi,

Although in most use cases each <symbol> for counter styles is one 
character long, as far as I can tell the empty string or multi-character 
strings and identifiers are valid <symbol> values too.

The 'width' descriptor is defined as counting <symbol> component values, 
not characters after concatenating the <symbol>s. Even ignoring image 
<symbols>s, this is probably better as it avoids the question of what is 
a character vs. combining character vs. grapheme cluster.

Still, the spec for the 'width' descriptor should have a note calling 
this out explicitly. Something like:

     Note: the number of <symbol> component values can be different
     from the number of characters they form when concatenated.


Also, the sentence "… where representations shorter than the width are 
padded with a particular character" should probably say "a particular 
<symbol>" instead. Even the initial value has an empty <symbol>.

-- 
Simon Sapin

Received on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 11:25:12 UTC