Dear editors, I've got a couple of issues regarding writing-mode where I'd like to make sure I'm interpreting the spec as you intended. ------------------------------------------- Issue 1: whose writing-mode determines the value of corresponding absolute properties.
Section 4.2.3 states: "For purposes of this definition, the content-rectangle of an area uses the inline-progression-direction and block-progression-direction of that area; but the border-rectangle, padding-rectangle, and allocation-rectangle use the directions of its parent area." I assume this implies that when calculating the corresponding absolute properties for properties such as padding-start, border-start-*, space-*, start-indent as described in Chapter 5.3 one uses the writing-mode of the nearest ancestor reference area-creating FO rather than the FO's own writing-mode (assuming the current FO also creates reference areas). Referring to the figure in section 4.2.3, where a "tb-rl" area is nested in a "lr-tb" one, start-indent for the inner area would thus be measured from the left side of the outer content rectangle to the left side of the inner content rectangle. Padding-start and border-start-width for the inner area area would be equivalent to padding-left and border-left-width and not padding-top and border-top-width. On the other hand, if inline-progression-dimension or block-progression-dimension are specified on an FO which establishes a reference area and specifies a writing-mode, these are calculated in that writing-mode. (Section 5.3.3 uses the phrase "the writing-mode in effect for the formatting object".) In the figure described above, inline-progression-dimension for the inner rectangle would thus be the vertical dimension. Is that the correct reading? ------------------------------------------- Issue 2. Writing-mode on region-master vs. writing-mode on flow and its descendants. In 7.27.7 the recommendation states: 'The "writing-mode" property applies only to formatting objects that set up a reference-area (for XSL these are: fo:simple-page-master, fo:region-*, fo:table, fo:block-container, and fo:inline-container. ' Since the writing-mode property isn't listed as applying to flow or static-content objects, this would seem to imply that text in a flow (outside of a table, block-container or inline-container which can specify its own writing-mode) is supposed to get its writing mode from the fo:region-* into which it is laid out! This doesn't seem reasonable since the writing-mode should be determined by the content of the flow and not the page-masters into which one flows it. If that were the case, there would be no way to calculate corresponding absolute property values until an area were placed on a page. As an implementator, this gives me nightmares. I would prefer to think of writing-mode as applying to the flow, which is indirectly generating reference areas in the region-body. It would still be possible to have a pathological situation where the flow writing-mode was different from the region-body writing mode. This could produce strange layout effects, but it wouldn't influence the property value calculations. What was the intention? ------------------------------------------- Thanks in advance for clarifying these points, Karen Lease FOP'er Senior Software Developer/Consultant SPX Valley Forge --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]