Re: FO. Is XSL FO realy XML? Re: attributes ordering

[pandeng@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Schafer)]

On Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:25:48 -0700, you wrote:

>If one sets 'border' and 'border-start' and 'border-start-style' on the
>same FO, they should be processed from least-qualified to most-qualified
>(which happens to be the order that they are shown -- thus border sets up
>tenative values for all sides, then border-start replaces the settings for
>the start edge, finally border-start-style overrides the individual style
>setting on the start-edge.)

Unfortunately, there is no obvious "canonical" ordering for some of
the shortcut properties. For example, which is more general,
border-start or border-color? Plausible arguments can be made either
way.

>There are other "order-of-interpretation" issues which we are attempting to
>identify. For example, font-size must be evaluated first, since EM-based
>sizes depend on it.

That's a separate issue (and is, in my opinion, really a non-issue).
The need to answer the question "How big is an EM?" doesn't arise
until "run time" (i.e., the time at which the flow object tree is
converted into some external persistent representation), and by that
time, font-size _does_ possess a value--all you have to do is look it
up in whatever in-memory structure you're using to represent the flow
object tree.

The problem with the border-XXXX shortcut properties is quite
different, because it arises at the time that you are _building_ your
in-memory structure, rather than at the time that you are _using_ your
(previously-built) in-memory structure.

-Steve


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