Last Comment Bug 2055 - [BLOCK] compact DL should be supported
: [BLOCK] compact DL should be supported
Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX
[bae:20011119]relnote-devel hit durin...
: relnote, testcase
Product: Core
Classification: Components
Component: Layout: Block and Inline (show other bugs)
: Trunk
: All All
: P5 enhancement with 1 vote (vote)
: Future
Assigned To: Marc Attinasi
: Hixie (not reading bugmail)
Mentors:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~dbaron/te...
: 4740 50195 111936 133022 203489 234027 (view as bug list)
Depends on: 180468
Blocks: html4.01 15432 104166
  Show dependency tree / graph
 
Reported: 1998-12-24 10:47 PST by David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch)
Modified: 2004-02-17 23:50 PST (History)
18 users (show)
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Description David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch) 1998-12-24 10:47:12 PST 
Once you get child selectors working, you can get compact DLs by putting the
following in ua.css:

DL[COMPACT] > DT {display: compact; }

See the above URL.
Comment 1 leger 1999-02-03 08:07:59 PST 
Setting all current Open/Normal to M4.
Comment 2 Eli Goldberg 1999-03-18 15:22:59 PST 
[QA Assigning to self.]
Comment 3 Eli Goldberg 1999-03-23 14:14:59 PST 
[Oops. Reassigning back to chrisd; misread this as a list issue, rather than a
style sheet issue. Thanks for pointing that out, Chris.]
Comment 4 Peter Linss 1999-03-24 23:09:59 PST 
We have the child selectors now. What we really need is compact layout...
Comment 5 David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch) 1999-03-25 05:51:59 PST 
You've supported compact display for a while now too:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~dbaron/csstest/results
Comment 6 kipp 1999-04-08 16:27:59 PDT 
*** Bug 4740 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 Aaron Swartz 1999-07-02 21:36:59 PDT 
Simplest possible testcase:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<OL compact>
  <LI>List item 1
  <LI>List item 2
  <LI>List item 3
</OL>

<OL>
  <LI>List item 1
  <LI>List item 2
  <LI>List item 3
</OL>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Marking as testcase...
Comment 8 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 1999-10-03 15:26:59 PDT 
What's happenning now is that 'display:compact' is being treated as block.

For final release, this should not happen.  Rather than treat it as block, you
should ignore it.  This means that the style system should treat it as an
invalid keyword, so that

   h2 {
     display: block;
     display: compact;
   }

...yields block display, and

   dl {
     display: inline;
     display: compact;
   }

...yields inline display.

This last issue is now covered by bug 15432. I am marking that bug dependent on
this one, but technically it is an either|or situation.

Note: For HTML4 compliancy, we should support 'compact'.
Comment 9 leger 1999-12-14 13:51:59 PST 
Updating to default Style System Assignee...kipp no longer with us :-(
Comment 10 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2000-01-13 16:06:59 PST 
Migrating from {css2} to css2 keyword. The {css1}, {css2}, {css3} and {css-moz}
radars should now be considered deprecated in favour of keywords.
I am *really* sorry about the spam...
Comment 11 ekrock's old account (dead) 2000-01-21 13:48:02 PST 
Bulk moving [testcase] code to new testcase keyword. Sorry for the spam!
Comment 12 buster 2000-03-03 16:05:25 PST 
mine! mine mine mine!  all mine!  whoo-hoo!
Comment 13 Pierre Saslawsky 2000-03-23 06:51:37 PST 
Display:marker/run-in/compact are not supported. Closed as Later like bug 2056 
and bug 14983.

The parser drops any declaration that contains one of these display types (see 
bug 15432).
Comment 14 Matthew Paul Thomas 2000-03-24 05:29:02 PST 
Does not supporting DL COMPACT mean Mozilla will not have 100% HTML 4.0 
compliance for final release? If so, should that be on the release notes (relnote 
keyword)?
Comment 15 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2000-03-29 07:28:36 PST 
mpt: You are correct. BTW, you can see the list of HTML4 features which we will 
NOT be implementing by looking at the bugs blocking 7954 that are marked LATER.
Comment 16 David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch) 2000-04-02 13:37:32 PDT 
Not supporting this does *NOT* imply noncompliance with HTML 4.0.  HTML 4.0
neither describes the expected rendering nor requires that the rendering be
different.  The most it says about the attribute is:

  When set, this boolean attribute gives a hint to visual user agents to render
  the list in a more compact way.
  (from http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/lists.html#h-10.2 )
Comment 17 Christine Hoffman 2000-04-24 11:26:46 PDT 
Verified LATER
Comment 18 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2000-06-07 10:19:52 PDT 
Reopening and moving to Future...
Comment 19 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2000-08-24 14:44:29 PDT 
*** Bug 50195 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 20 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2001-02-09 15:59:22 PST 
Matty: Why do you think this is a mozilla0.9 blocker?

This is a CSS2 RFE, I wouldn't even put it down as a mozilla 1.0 blocker.
Comment 21 Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine] 2001-02-09 20:49:55 PST 
Probably the "correctness" and "relnote" keywords, but perhaps I was a little
trigger-happy.

I'll respect whatever opinion you have, but I think it should probably be
nominated for 1.1 or 1.2 at least.
Comment 22 Matthew Paul Thomas 2001-02-10 11:22:16 PST 
A CSS2 RFE? Um, it's expected behavior (regardless of what is *required* 
behavior) for HTML 2.0 (regardless of whether or not an HTML 2.0 rendering engine 
uses CSS to present HTML at all).
Comment 23 ekrock's old account (dead) 2001-02-23 18:11:08 PST 
Nominating for nsbeta1 consideration because you do encounter pages from time 
to time that depend on this behavior and look strange (text lines spaced out 
widely) because it's not supported. However, if Netscape engineering runs out 
of time before nsbeta1, this would be a good one to FUTURE.
Comment 24 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2001-04-26 17:07:48 PDT 
Nominating this bug for nsbeta1 on behalf of gerardok@netscape.com.
Comment 25 Kevin McCluskey (gone) 2001-10-04 16:28:18 PDT 
Build reassigning Buster's bugs to Marc.
Comment 26 rubydoo123 2001-11-20 16:24:31 PST 
the compact attribute has been deprecated since HTML 4.0 and is obsoleted in 
XHTML.

this should be a wontfix
Comment 27 jt 2001-11-20 16:59:57 PST 
    Personally, I don't agree with the WONTFIX. If there was any other practical
way to do the same kind of formating as <DL COMPACT>, that would be OK, but
there is just no way to do it. The HTML I "write" is very basic designed for
*any* browser, including Lynx, so I don't want any XHTML or CSS solution.

    Let's take a concrete example : I've got a few papers on my web page, and at
the end of the paper I've got a list of references :
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Papers/Packet.Frame.Grouping.html#References
    <Comments on my buggy HTML for another day please>
    The formating that I want is something like :
-------------------------------------
[1]     IEEE 802.11 : Wireless LAN medium access control (MAC) and physical
layer (PHY) specifications. IEEE.
-------------------------------------
    There is no notion of <TAB> or <OL> with customised headings, so I do :
---------------------
<dl COMPACT>
<dt>[1]
<dd><i>IEEE 802.11&nbsp;: Wireless LAN medium access control (MAC) and
physical layer (PHY) specifications</i>. IEEE.
---------------------
    Which is to me both logically and esthetically pleasing. Logically, because
it's a list of attibute/value pairs, which is exactly what <DL> is supposed to
mean. Esthetically because it display like a <OL> list.
    All browser I tested support this the way it should be, except of course
Mozilla that break it in two lines (ugly).
    Now, I'm pretty ignorant about HTML and all the jazz, but if you find me a
solution that would produce the same effect a <DL COMPACT> and works in all
browsers, I'm with you. Otherwise, I just have to disagree...
    FUTURE is ok with me, it doesn't have to be fix *right now*, it can wait 1.1
or later, but I just disagree in you saying it's not worth fixing (and that's
why I voted for this bug).
    <By the way, what's involved in fixing that ? It seems that both front-end
and back-end for it are already implemented ?>
    Jean
Comment 28 rubydoo123 2001-11-20 17:45:50 PST 
Sorry, I thought I had explained that I marked this as wontfix based on the 
deprecation of this attribute in HTML 4.0 Spec and the obsoletion of the 
attribute in the XHTML Spec. I guess we could reopen, keep in future and mark it 
as a quirks only issue.
Comment 29 timeless 2001-11-26 08:09:22 PST 
*** Bug 111936 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 30 timeless 2001-11-26 08:10:10 PST 
ok
Comment 31 David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch) 2001-11-26 09:36:21 PST 
Please don't make quirks mode and standards mode diverge any more.  Standards
mode should follow the standards -- and implementing deprecated features is
certainly within the standards.  Quirks mode should only differ from standards
mode when we *need* to break standard behavior in order to get real pages on the
web to display correctly.

Having said that, I think wontfix is an appropriate resolution here since we've
removed our support for 'display: compact' and since compact DLs aren't used on
the web and are deprecated.  When i initially filed this bug it would have taken
a single rule in ua.css to fix this bug.
Comment 32 rubydoo123 2001-11-26 10:58:14 PST 
I'm with David on this one, reclosing as wontfix
Comment 33 Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail) 2002-03-23 15:24:16 PST 
*** Bug 133022 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 34 Hixie (not reading bugmail) 2002-03-23 15:36:44 PST 
VERIFIED that we have decided not to support HTML 3.2's "compact" attribute on
DL elements.
Comment 35 Markus Senoner 2002-03-24 07:29:00 PST 
<DL COMPACT> is deprecated, but not obsolete in HTML 4.01.
Deprecated attributes should still be rendered in browsers for backward 
compatibility.

Is there a way to specify compact rendering of DL in style-sheets?
I fear not!  One more reason to still support <DL COMPACT>.

Aaron Swarz (comment #7) is wrong by supposing COMPACT an attribute of OL 
instead of DL

I agree with jt@hpl.hp.com (comment #27) that this bug should NOT be a WONTFIX 
as COMPACT DL helps a lot when dealing with lists - I too use(d) this attribute 
a lot.

I disagree with David Baron (comment #31) believing compact DLs aren't used on 
the web.  I even hope, compact DL will be put back in the standard and be used 
*more*, instead of the widespread use to put cumbersome nested tables everywhere 
to control layout...
Comment 36 Boris Zbarsky [:bz] 2002-04-13 21:00:49 PDT 
*** Bug 133022 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 37 Charles C. Fu 2002-05-26 14:47:44 PDT 
beppe@netscape.com wrote "I marked this as wontfix based on the 
deprecation of this attribute in HTML 4.0 Spec and the obsoletion of the 
attribute in the XHTML Spec".

On the other hand Netscape's developer release notes
<URL:http://developer.netscape.com/docs/technote/gecko/n6release.html> classify
this bug as a CSS2 issue.

This thread has gotten very muddled and has over time raised issues from child
selectors to support of "display: compact" to support of the
(deprecated/obsolete) compact attribute. There should really be separate bugs to
track these separate issues.  The last few comments as well as most (all?) of
the duplicate bug reports are about the compact attribute, so I think the
following actions should be taken:

- Create a new bug report to track work on a future "display: compact"
enhancement (I don't see an existing specific bug report for this purpose).

- Make it clear that this bug is now only for the compact attribute. And remove
css2 from the keywords if that is possible.
Comment 38 alge 2003-01-27 18:49:46 PST 
bug 180468 is the inline: compact not implemented css2 bug.
Comment 39 Christopher Hoess (gone) 2003-04-26 12:50:57 PDT 
*** Bug 203489 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 40 Bill Mason 2004-02-12 08:28:30 PST 
*** Bug 234027 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 41 Nowhere man 2004-02-17 14:03:39 PST 
This bug should really be reopened, as it is not only an HTML bug, but also a
CSS2 bug. As a deprecated HTML feature, Mozilla could drop support for the <dl
compact> form, but if the {display: compact} support is not achieved, Mozilla
will never be  able to claim CSS2 compliance (nearly six years after, now...).
Comment 42 David Baron :dbaron: ⌚️UTC+1 (mostly busy through August 4; review requests must explain patch) 2004-02-17 14:07:05 PST 
'display:compact' should be a separate bug.
Comment 43 Tom Mraz 2004-02-17 23:50:22 PST 
And it is - bug 180468
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