Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:
This is definitely and distinctly a CSS issue, not a HTML one. The
fact that the contents of an element flow into another box elsewhere
in the page has nothing to do with the underlying structure of the
data - it's still a single cohesive element, and thus in html it would
be marked up exactly as normal. You just happen to be displaying it
differently.
The accuracy of your statement depends largely on whether the
specification allows the content source to be defined across all joined
blocks or only in the first. For example:
<div id="col1"><p>first para</p><p>second para</p></div>
... other unrelated markup ...
<div join="col1"><p>third para</p></div>
This markup would be common when the author is trying to support legacy
or non-CSS browsers. The join attribute allows supporting agents to know
that conceptually the third para follows on from the second. This might
be useful for text or audio browsers to correctly concatenate related
sections of text and for search engines trying to demarcate meaningful
areas of the page. I strongly recommend that HTML5 define the join
attribute and then allow the CSS group to define its behaviour in
relation to visual styles. The 'class' attribute sets a precedent for
this as it is defined in HTML despite generally having no implications
beyond being a style hook. CSS cannot currently target elements except
by their structural alignment to others and in many cases the blocks to
be joined won't have a simple relationship. Targetting the id of joined
elements with the 'join' attribute is still required regardless of how
the CSS rules are implemented and this is the correct forum for new HTML
attributes.
I've got some ideas in this regard, but we should move it to the CSS
list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
Already done. The topic is currently waiting on moderation.
Shannon
