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My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:01 am
by omniuni
After being back on these forums, I have decided that I have a rather short wishlist for CSS. I feel that if they introduce just two new properties, it will stop a whole lot of people from complaining. 8)

1. display: column;
Functionality; renders the element as block. If there is space below the element, the bottom is dropped until it intersects with another element.

2. text-align-vertical: top, middle, bottom;
Functionality; aligns the elements text vertically within the element, just as you can use a table cell with vertical-align to position content in the middle.

Now, if I've missed existing CSS that covers this functionality, even if it's not implemented, let me know. Otherwise... are there any other incredibly simple/convenient properties you'd like to see added to CSS? I'm curious to know. Please, though, describe the functionality specifically enough that it would be theoretically feasible, or I/we can say if there's some way to achieve it already.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:19 am
by jaoudestudios
Might be a stupid question but have you looked at CSS3 as it contains many features, but none of the browsers support it yet.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:59 am
by omniuni
CSS3 does indeed contain many features, but it's hard finding comprehensive information, especially for actually seeing if a wanted feature is there. I am hoping that if one of these IS in CSS3, someone here knows and can tell me!

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:22 am
by jaoudestudios
I looked into CSS3 a while back, but then found out not all of the browsers supported it, so put it on the back burner until it is supported across most of the browsers. I think FireFox supports CSS3 but the obvious one that doesnt was Internet Explorer - not that i want to turn this into a browser war, but for the record IE sucks! :P

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:59 am
by mikemike
Just one of those things you have to work round. You'll have to use tables instead if those effects are absolutely necessary.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:00 pm
by omniuni
Yep. And I won't use tables... therefore, this is simply a wish list!

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:17 pm
by JAB Creations
1.) Look in to multi-column layouts...my site uses them.

2.) Use vertical-align for vertical text alignment.

WebKit (used in Chrome and Safari) has the best CSS3 support (properties count more then selectors since selectors can essentially though inefficently emulated by XHTML generated by PHP). Gecko has respectable CSS3 support. Opera...well read about Vega.

Internet Explorer 8 pretty much doesn't have any CSS3 specs worthwhile mentioning.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:30 pm
by mikemike
It's not making multiple columns that's the problem, it's having the columns all match heights when you're using dynamic content. At present the only way to do that (to my knowledge) would be to either use tables or some very dirty javascript

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:44 pm
by omniuni
MikeMike, there is actually a pure CSS solution:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/equa ... s-no-hacks

It's just inordinately complex! Two column layouts are fine, though, JAB. I do love your crazy website though. It's so busy and "1995" in look, yet has such incredible code behind it :lol: I want to see some websites that you've designed that are more utilitarian, and less experimental!

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:32 am
by mikemike
A little over complicated. Nice idea though

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:22 pm
by JAB Creations
mikemike, it's never over-complicated adding an extra divisible element in to the mix if it means getting results within the boundaries of standards compliance! Besides my nit-picky pixel perfect designs and a major positioning bug my CSS1 level layout related CSS is rendered flawlessly in IE6 and older. Really, it's worth using that extra divisible element because you can move on to the next thing on your list. :)
omniuni wrote:MikeMike, there is actually a pure CSS solution:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/equa ... s-no-hacks

It's just inordinately complex! Two column layouts are fine, though, JAB. I do love your crazy website though. It's so busy and "1995" in look, yet has such incredible code behind it :lol: I want to see some websites that you've designed that are more utilitarian, and less experimental!
Nice, a VISUAL for CSS layout, THAT is how a tutorial is presented successfully people! :)

Thanks omniuni, here is a screenshot of what the front page looks like in development, an improvement I think. :mrgreen:
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7798 ... ntpage.png

I have some older work at johnbilicki.com.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:45 pm
by omniuni
Immensely cleaner, JAB! Now, just tone down that purple plasma...

I imagine that your website must result in something of a library of useful functions. Your website, despite the rather loud theme feels more like an application than anything else with all the personal settings and such. It will be interesting to see a functional site built on that kind of work. It would be great, really, for sites with a lot of content. Imagine some big studio website built like that, say Pixar. They could have sound tracks in the background, a video browser, themes based on their movies, etc. Such possibility! It would also make for an awesome CMS for larger sites. Make it feel like an application for editing content rather than just a website.

Re: My Little CSS Wishlist

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:00 pm
by mikemike
JAB Creations wrote:mikemike, it's never over-complicated adding an extra divisible element in to the mix if it means getting results within the boundaries of standards compliance! Besides my nit-picky pixel perfect designs and a major positioning bug my CSS1 level layout related CSS is rendered flawlessly in IE6 and older. Really, it's worth using that extra divisible element because you can move on to the next thing on your list. :)
It's not me I'm worried about. It's the fact that a lot of developers wouldn't be able to understand what this code is doing without a graphical representation or a large description - and in a large part of the industry things have to be dumbed down for when CSS experts can't be the one's editing the files. It's not a perfect scenario, but that's how business works sometimes, as I'm sure you're aware.