Re: [css-values] text()

On 26 October 2013 19:11, Håkon Wium Lie <howcome@opera.com> wrote:

> Jon Rimmer wrote:
>
>  > I'd like to propose a text() function that returns an element's
> inner-text,
>  > similarly to how attr() returns the value of an attribute.
>
> Note that there already is a functional notation for getting the
> textual content:
>
>   http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-gcpm/#setting-named-strings-the-string-set-pro
>   http://books.spec.whatwg.org/#named-strings
>
> The use until now has been for running headers and footers.
>

Ah, interesting. From reading the spec, it seems the strings are always
scoped to the page? So this wouldn't meet the use case unless it was
extended to allow more precise control of the scope. I noticed the obsolete
Generated Content L3 spec also proposed a 'contents' value for the content
property[1], that can make a pseudo render the element's descendants, but
it explicitly disallows duplication.

It seems like the GCPM spec is a robust effort aimed at printed media
requirements, but is also probably some way off completion and widespread
implementation. My thought with text() was that it solves this use-case
without requiring much additional complexity, particularly if it was
limited only to use with the content property. Most user agents already
provide innerText/textContent properties on DOM nodes, so there is code
available, and its behaviour is understood by authors.

[1]
http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-content/#inserting-and-replacing-content-with-the

Thanks,
Jon