On Wednesday 2008-06-04 17:50 -0700, Andrew Fedoniouk wrote:

I've been thinking about this a little more. I think my main problem with what you're proposing is this:

You're proposing that we take the CSS box model, with all its complexity -- things like margin collapsing, flow around floats, doing intrinsic width calculation in the presence of floats and containers that establish new block formatting contexts, and make this whole complicated thing work in both horizontal and vertical orientation (and mixing orientations). I don't think all of these pieces are needed for user interface layout, and I worry that this whole mess put together will collapse under the weight of its own complexity.

I'd rather start with something simpler that doesn't have these complications, where maybe we have a chance of defining sensible intrinsic dimensions in the presence of switches between horizontal and vertical layout (which is complicated enough already).

I think your solution does solve a pretty similar set of problems. But I disagree with your claim that it's simpler. I think by reusing the existing, complicated model, it's actually more complex than a cleaner break that introduces more new properties. (I'd even agree that there are advantages to reusing the same model; I just don't think simplicity is one of them.)

-David