Re: missing background-color

On Sat, 12 Nov 2005, John V. Harris wrote:

> I am thinking it is probably time to create some kind of Version string 
> that I can place in my CSS block indicating which version of the 
> standard it was validated against.

There is no standard. Even if there were, the idea would be pointless,
since nobody should trust such "indicator", any more than anyone should
trust a "Valid HTML!", "Valid CSS!", or "WCAG 1.0!" label.

> I have determined that ALL of the warnings I am getting can be 
> suppressed by including "background-color: inherit" into the rule for 
> each selector where I haven't otherwise specified a background-color.

Are you aiming at getting a warning-free report as a _goal_ in itself?
Then use an empty style sheet.

> I actually have a problem doing that, because the common browsers don't 
> seem to have adopted CSS2, and the keyword "inherit" was not a part of 
> CSS1.

The real problem with it is that you would get as unpredictable results
as by not setting background color. Besides, inherit is the initial value.
Anyway, the element would inherit its background color from its parent 
element, and you cannot know which color that is.

> Therefore, the inclusion of that keyword would be done ONLY to 
> satisfy your validator,

So why would you do that? The "CSS Validator" gives a useful warning.
You can ignore it, you can refrain from using the program at all,
or you can make some use of it.

> As it is NOW, it is like the "boy who cried wolf"...it 
> is difficult to see REAL warnings amidst all the garbage.

The real warnings are about things you would not notice otherwise.
Clearly, the background color warnings belong to this category.

> FURTHERMORE, any warning about not including a background-color when I 
> specify a color seems to indicate a tendency to remove "Cascading" from 
> "Cascading Style Sheets".

People who complain about it do not understand the "Cascading" part of 
CSS.

Have you _ever_ thought what happens when your style sheet is applied
in conjunction with other style sheets, such as a browser's default style 
sheet or a user style sheet, which can contain just anything?

-- 
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Received on Sunday, 13 November 2005 08:47:42 UTC