Here are two plausible candidates:
Unlimited number of fixed-width columns, overflowing horizontally 0**** 3**** 6**** 9**** 12*** 15*** 1**** 4**** 7**** 10*** 13*** 16*** 2**** 5**** 8**** 11*** 14*** 17*** <---scrollbar--->
Limited number of fixed-width colunns, paginated so as to overflow vertically
0**** 3**** 6**** ^
1**** 4**** 7**** |
2**** 5**** 8**** V
9**** 12*** 15*** 10*** 13*** 16*** 11*** 14*** 17***
Now, the CSS3 columns proposal is fairly straightforward: http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-css3-multicol-20010118/ But it can't express these layouts.
The first layout could be achieved if we added a new column-count value: -moz-unlimited. This would combine with a fixed column-width and a height constraint to cause enough columns to be created to flow the content, even if this creates horizontal overflow.
For the second layout, the right way to go might be to have a property that lets authors force pagination within a block element. Something like -moz-block-paginate:10em would force pagination within the element with a nominal page height of 10em; basically meaning there needs to be a "page break" within the block at least every 10em.
Both of these would be fairly easy to implement in Gecko, IMHO. The only thing that really scares me about the CSS3 columns proposal is column height balancing, but neither of the layouts above needs it. (For readability, you probably don't want unlimited height columns anyway.) Might be nice to have a column property to turn it off in the presence of a height constraint.
Any thoughts?
Rob _______________________________________________ mozilla-layout mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/mozilla-layout
