

Comments on CSS3 Multi-column layout

From: Sergiu Dumitriu <sergiu.dumitriu@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 05:02:31 +0300
Message-ID: <fdafd3230706091902n7e70eb71we19c27be1d581c49@mail.gmail.com>
To: www-style@w3.org

Here are some comments after a quick scan of the CSS3 Multi-column
layout specification:

Section 3: The multi-column model
* Typo: column box does not establish a _contaning_ block

Example VIII
* On some systems, there is a white space between the text and the
column gap. This can create a bit of confusion, as it can be perceived
as a padding.

Subsection 4.5: Stacking context
A link to the definition of a stacking context would be much appreciated.

Section 7: Spanning columns
* Why is there a subsection 7.1? Since there is only one property, it
could be directly in the section.
* What happens if there is a large static or floating element before
the spanning element, which would cause the columns to be unbalanced?
* Why not any number of columns? A fixed number of columns will result
in an element spanning exactly that many columns. What's more,
specifying a fixed width for the spanned element could result into
something like this:

|     |     |     |
|     |     |     |
|     |     |     |
|     |   -----   |
|     |   |img|   |
|     |   |img|   |
|     |   -----   |
|     |     |     |

Section 8: Filling columns
* Should Media: paged be specified? This property also applies to
continuous media, as stated below.
* "In continuous media, this property will only be consulted if the
length of columns has been constrained." Shouldn't that be the height
of the columns, instead of length?
* Typo: In _continous_ media
* Typo: Otherwise, columns _will will_ automatically be balanced.
* What happens when the column height is constrained, and the fill
property would result in smaller columns? Ignore column-fill, ignore
the specified height, or leave empty space between the text and the
box boundary?

Section 9: Overflow and multi-column elements
* "However, some content (e.g., floats) may intrude into other
columns." There is no specification when this might happen. In the
paragraph above, it is stated that "[...] e.g., long words and floats
[...] is clipped"

Example XVII
* Spanning the content over multiple pages results in increasing the
number of columns? e.g., 4 pages x 3 columns = 12 columns? Why not say
that there are still 3 columns with pagebreaks inside, generating 12
column boxes? (this involves making a distinction between columns and
column boxes, which are considered equivalent in the current draft)
* In the example, are there 6 columns, or 4? In continuous media, only
4 columns are generated. It should be stated that in the case of paged
media, the number of columns is increased by a multiple of the normal
number of columns, instead of the needed number of extra columns.
* The second row of columns should be balanced, as the default value
for column-fill is balance. Or, if the fill property does not apply
for extra columns, it should be stated somewhere.

Received on Sunday, 10 June 2007 02:02:34 GMT
