RE: XP> Margins, borders, padding, and backgrounds

From: Grant, Melinda (melinda.grant@hp.com)
Date: Thu Oct 05 2006 - 22:35:30 EDT

  • Next message: Grant, Melinda: "RE: XP> [CSS Paged Media] Margin Boxes and the Page Border"

     
    Hi Ats,

    > Going back to the definition of <HTML> and <BODY>, (I had to
    > go back to HTML4 for this, I apologize if there is a more
    > appropriate definition I should be referring)
    >
    > http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html#h-7.1
    >
    > it says that the body "contains the document's actual content."
    > Doesn't this mean that everything outside of the body
    > container is not "the document's actual content" ?
    >
    > There seems to be a inconsistency across the different specifications.

    We could probably get over our heads here quickly trying to read between
    the lines of the specifications. But to take it one step further, in
    XHTML 1.0 and beyond, no content is allowed directly in <body>. It must
    be enclosed within a block. For example, text must be within a <p>. So
    you could say that body is just a container for the containers that have
    the *real* content. But it can still be styled. You could see the html
    element the same way. It contains blocks which contain blocks, but it
    can still be styled. A div could be empty, but it can still be
    styled...

    > In any case, a clarification about the relationship between
    > <HTML>, <BODY>, and @page would be helpful.
    >
    > > HP doesn't yet support styling of html elements, as
    > required by the CSS > 2.1 specification. We are adding that support.
    >
    > I am afraid of implementations already out in the world that
    > consider html out of scope of actual layout, and do not
    > reflect styling of html elements.

    I agree authors will be constrained for some time by differences in our
    various implementations. Which argues all the more strongly for
    getting clear specs and consistent implementations as quickly as
    possible. The good news is that the use of the technology is still
    quite limited, so we have a bit of time. And within a few years, our
    old printers won't matter and authors will be able to begin using
    features that now don't work consistently. (Like styling the html
    element. ;-)

    <snip />

    > Also, from a point of author friendliness, it would be much
    > useful that the background extend to the bottom of the page
    > when a page consists only with objects laid out using
    > absolute positioning.

    Sorry, I don't understand this statement. Could you elaborate as to why
    absolute positioning matters? The author could of course use the page
    background, which would extend to the bottom of the page regardless of
    where the document flow ended. Or he could set the body height to 100%,
    which would set it to the height of the page area...

    > Regards,
    > Ats Nakamura
    > Canon

    Best wishes,

    Melinda



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