CSS3 box-sizing property (resend with smaller patch).

[Allan Sandfeld Jensen]

On Friday 05 November 2004 17:34, Bert Bos wrote:
> On Thursday 04 November 2004 15:23, Allan Sandfeld Jensen wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > Just wanted to get peoples opinion before commiting my next patch
> > that implements the suggested CSS3 property box-sizing.
> > It already exists in MacIE and Opera, and in Mozilla under
> > -moz-box-sizing, but it seems it is only luke-warm for CSS3.
> > It is used for manually telling which box-model the webpage is using.
> > The old WinIE (border-box) or the CSS standard one (content-box).
>
> Correct. More precisely, there are two reasons that 'box-sizing' is
> proposed for CSS3:
>
>    1. It helps WinIE recover from the bug in the previous version.
>
>    2. It is useful for styling certain things with borders and fixed
>       widths, such as buttons.
>
> The argument against 1 is:
>
>   - The longer we wait, the less necessary it becomes. It may already
>     not be a big deal anymore, as designers who still have to support
>     WinIE5 use other workarounds.
>
> The argument against 2 is:
>
>   - A property that works indirectly, by modifying another, is not very
>     user-friendly and doesn't cascade well: setting 'box-sizing' without
>     setting 'width' at the same time is dangerous.
>
>   - We (the CSS WG) are also working on simple expressions
>     (e.g., 'width: 50% - 2em' or 'width: 10em + 4px')
>     If we decide to go that way, 'box-width' will be redundant.
>
> I'd say the chances of 'box-sizing' going into CSS3 are currently 50-50.
> (The chance of 'box-width' and 'box-height' going into CSS3 is much
> lower. It's more likely that we add either expressions or 'box-sizing'.
> But let us hear your preference, CC www-style at w3.org, please.)
>
> My advice would be: if you have sufficient time & people to implement
> 'box-sizing' functionality, by all means go ahead.
>
> But please don't call it 'box-sizing' until the property has "Candidate
> Recommendation" status in W3C. You'll only confuse people (and you
> won't be conformant to CSS 2.1). Call it '-moz-box-sizing', if Mozilla
> is OK with that, or '-khtml-box-sizing'.
>
AFAIK already has "Candidate Recommendation" (since May). 
See http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/CR-css3-ui-20040511

`Allan