[css3-images] [css3-gcpm] element() and element() from fantasai on 2012-03-01 (www-style@w3.org from March 2012) (original) (raw)

On 02/29/2012 04:10 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Simon Fraser<smfr@me.com> wrote:

element() in the CSS Image case doesn't immediately strike me as meaning a snapshot of the targeted element. Maybe we should use something more descriptive, like:

snapshot() (even though it updates) replica() element-image() imageof()

I think this is a good usability point.

My intent is that, eventually, element() will be usable by other properties as well that need to refer to an element. When it's used in an context, it means what Image Values says. When it's used in some other context, it means whatever that context wants.

The only problem occurs if you want a property to accept boths and whatever other type accepts element(). I doubt that this conflict will be much of a problem.

Actually, in CSS, all of our values are strongly typed. They don't depend on context. Introducing a function whose interpretation depends on context is therefore inconsistent. If we're an type, we're always an type. Various parsing situations depend or will depend on this. The 'background' and 'content' properties are two examples where many types can collide, but the principle is general.

~fantasai

Received on Thursday, 1 March 2012 02:22:01 UTC