15868 - ID selector cannot begin with digit

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: CSS Parsing and Computation, defect, P3)

Description

[James Scott]

CSS1 spec says ID selectors can't begin with digits. Build 1999100715 renders
the listed URL improperly - sentence reading "this sentence should be black,
not red" is in fact red. ID is described as "#1".

Comment 1

[Peter Linss]

CSS2 no longer has this restriction.

Comment 2

[Christine Hoffman]

Verified invalid

Comment 3

[Christine Hoffman]

*** Bug 22434 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

Also discussed in bug 18936.

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 37970 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

*** Bug 223858 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Could you indicate where in CSS2 it says that ID's can start with a Digit as
indicated in comment 2?

I just checked CSS2 and the drafts of CSS2.1 and CSS3, the three documents say
that it is not allowed. I also looked for erratas that would have been published
and public CSS discussion lists, all the messages I found say that identifiers
can't start with a digit. 

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/syndata.html#q4
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#q6
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-css3-syntax-20030813/#characters

More specifically, this bug seems to be consider as invalid because you consider
that chapter 4 of CSS2 should follow the grammar 
" ID selectors match the HASH production which is "#"{name}, where name is
{nmchar}+ (as opposed to ident, which is {nmstart}{nmchar}*)"
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18936#c4

But on the CSS list, Bert Boss responding to Ian Hickson about it said : 
"Indeed. This error in the grammar seems to haunt us, and this time
again we forgot to correct it :-( The intention is that class names
may not start with a digit, so the error is in the grammar."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/1999Jan/0034.html

I have to say that I am a bit confused, the grammar is difficult to read and
understand since I am no computer scientist but I have the feeling that
"#"{name} was thought to allow hexadecimal color values, not for ID's, otherwise
why wasn't it changed in chapter 4.1.3 of CSS2.1 which is a Last Call Working
Draft ?