Re: [css-writing-modes] Can't analyze a passage and find it redundantly technical

On 01/15/2018 02:56 PM, Dennis Heuer wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Jan 2018 14:10:16 -0800
> fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net> wrote:
>   
>> Replaced elements have a very specific technical meaning in CSS,
>> and this paragraph is addressing those. It lists a number of
>> examples to make sure that readers understand the full extent of
>> its implications. Your rewrite is less precise, and therefore,
>> not appropriate for the specification. You are welcome to write
>> tutorials and articles about writing mode with less precision :)
>> but we cannot afford to do so here.
>>
>> ~fantasai
>> CSS Writing Modes specification editor
>>
> 
> I scanned the document. Only in the reference I found a link. Could
> you please turn the respective terms in the document into links to the
> below address:
> 
> https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/conform.html#replaced-element

OK, I have committed the change to link “replaced element” to the glossary.
You can see the changes in the Editor's Draft; it will take awhile before
the publication is updated on www.w3.org, however.

> Still don't understand the neccessity for the px! Is too high for me!

For the 300x150 example? It is just an example. :) There is a peculiar
rule in CSS that if a replaced element does not have intrinsic dimensions,
then we fall back to 300px * 150px. We list this example in the spec to
make it clear that the dimensions of this fallback value do not flip when
the writing mode is vertical.

> Still find that the term might be understandable from a very internal
> and bottom-up view. However, who is reading this term the first time
> can not make any sense of it! Try to choose self-explanatory terms!

We try, but this seems to have been the best we could come up with when
the CSS2 specification was written. I think we'd be open to a change in
terms if you have one that is significantly better. (That is, everyone
agrees it is much better than the current term.) But it needs to be a
term that encompasses all of the following:

   * images
   * videos
   * embedded documents (via <iframe>)
   * MathML
   * form controls
   * applets
   * (anything else that isn't constructed of CSS boxes and laid out with CSS)

~fantasai

Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:12:22 UTC