544212 - Absolute positioning inside <button> elements doesn't work as intended

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 437722

(Core :: Layout: Form Controls, defect)

Description

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

If I have a relatively positioned <button> element, and create an absolutely positioned element inside it, its position is calculated improperly.

This issue is important, because absolutely positioned <span> within a relatively positioned <button> is probably the easiest way of implementing scalable styled buttons... This works in Safari, Opera, IE6/7 (sadly, not 8), but fails in Firefox:
in 3.6/Mac and 3.7a1/Win, the span is offset depending on padding values of the button;
in 3.0/Win, it's not only offset, but also hidden from view.

Comment 1

[Rimas Kudelis [use needinfo to ping]]

Attachment: Testcase

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Rimas, thanks for the testcase....  This is unfortunately a longstanding issue dating back to a very early (poor) design decision in Gecko.  :(  We would like to fix it, but no timeframe yet.

Comment 3

[Stephanie Sullivan Rewis]

Would love to see something done with this. As we're more able to use things like pseudo-elements, having the ability to absolutely position them (reliably) within their parent is very important. Can we request that this is escalated?