Re: [css-display] Refactoring 'display', got a crazy idea

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 2:11 AM, Simon Pieters <simonp@opera.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 00:07:16 +0200, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 4:53 AM, Simon Pieters <simonp@opera.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Fri, 08 May 2015 01:37:47 +0200, fantasai
>>> <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The term "flow" was taken from the HTML specs, where it indicates
>>>> a mix of inline and block content. This is consistent with how
>>>> CSS block containers accept a mix of inline and block content and
>>>> format them together.
>>>
>>>
>>> So the HTML spec intentionally moved away from "inline" and "block"
>>> terminology for its content models to avoid confusion with CSS 'display'.
>>> It
>>> seems like a bad idea to repeat the same mistake.
>>
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean.  Can you elaborate?
>
>
> HTML4 had the concepts "inline-level elements" and "block-level elements" to
> explain its content models, i.e. how elements are allowed to nest.
>
> CSS has 'display:inline' and 'display:block' which are orthogonal to HTML's
> content models.
>
> People got confused by the same names meaning different things in HTML and
> CSS. To solve this, HTML changed its terminology to "phrasing content" and
> "flow content".
>
> By adding 'flow' to 'display', people will again be confused.

On the other hand, CSS has used the term "flow" to refer to the
block/inline formatting model for over a decade (thus the terms
"in-flow" and "out-of-flow").

~TJ

Received on Thursday, 3 September 2015 18:36:38 UTC