This is a good question. The answer to the first part is that it should return an int, representing the number of millipoints. When it cannot be resolved, it should return an int constant TBD_LAYOUT (or whatever), which is equal to -32,987 (or whatever). So, the Area Tree or Layout needs to then perhaps query another "get" method to determine how it should compute the value from its Area Tree context, or, as I mentioned in a recent (within the past hour or so) posting in response to Glen, either 1) passing context data to "get", or 2) making "get" look at the area tree context before returning the value.
What about font-size="12pt+2%+0.8*from-parent(height div 32)" ?
J.Pietschmann