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List:       quanta-devel
Subject:    Re: [quanta-devel] CSS ideas
From:       Jens Herden <jens () kdewebdev ! org>
Date:       2005-04-28 7:45:26
Message-ID: 200504281445.27022.jens () kdewebdev ! org
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Hi Paulo,

> > > I'm thinking of improving the CSS support in Quanta a little:
> >
> > Yes, Quanta definitely needs attention there.
> >
> > > 1. Preview of CSS documents. The user would be asked to choose the
> > > HTML/XML file to show against the current CSS doc. We also could supply
> > > a default example file (based on the CSS) when no HTML document is
> > > chosen.
> >
> > I would say the best preview would be the file I am working with but an
> > option to show something else is good.
>
> I don't understand. You are working with the CSS file, what do you mean?

Oh I see, I was misunderstanding you. I thought somehow about the existing CSS 
editor and did not get that you talked about editing a CSS file. 

Working on a CSS file is right now extremely well supported by the 
autocomplete feature. I can hardly imagine a way to improve this but a 
preview might be an improvement. 


> > My dreamed CSS editor will be in a toolview and you will see the results
> > directly in the main editor area, either in code or in a KHTML part.
>
> You mean a splited view with the CSS code and a html preview? It's not very
> clear to me what a toolview is, sorry :)

By toolview I mean one of the windows on the right, left or bottom side of the 
editor. Since my focus is on the document and not the CSS file I was thinking 
about a way to display the document and all related CSS information in a 
toolview. There I would like to see the current tag styles, the current file 
styles and all linked CSS files. 
The absolutely killer feature would be a CSS debugger. You click in a tag and 
get to see every property that does influence the tag appearance and the 
place where the propertie is defined. A dream but a nice one.

> > > 2. Provide the option of linking a CSS doc to several HTML files. This
> > > should be project oriented.
> >
> > I don't get this? You mean during editing of an CSS file you want to
> > assign it to an HTML and they should be automaticly linked in the head
> > section?
>
> Yes, you make a CSS to apply in at least one file. If this can be more
> automated, the better.

The only way how I can imagine this is to create a propper link tag instead of 
the stupid a tag if I drag and drop a CSS url into the editor. Everything 
else I can imagine is over engineered. But if you can create a solution which 
is easy to use and does not artificially limit what is possible with CSS I 
would support this. 
So what do I mean by "artificially limit"? There multiple links to CSS files 
allowed, but the document properties dialog does not support this. The order 
of CSS properties is important but the first version of the CSS editor did 
not respect this and reordered the file. AFAIK it still does remove comments 
(maybe I am wrong here). With the CSS editor it is not possible to enter 
valid CSS in some cases, you can only enter integer values. Thinks like this 
are small problems but have a great impact on how users are satisfied with 
Quanta. And they limit what they can do with HTML/CSS in an artifical way 
because the limits do not come from the standards but from the editor.


> > If
> > you really want this be carefull because order is important. If you link
> > two or more CSS files you can get different results if they are in
> > different order! This makes it complicated because you will have to be
> > able to define the position in the HTML file. I do not know if it worse
> > to make this.
>
> We simply wouldn't allow importing more than one stylesheet and could hava
> a checkbox to doesn't change files that already link to some CSS.
> I think that as you are so aware of details you find concerns in everything
> but one have to be optimistic and creative in order to implement anything
> :)

This is exactly what I mean by "artificially limit". This might be good for 
beginners but renders the tool useless for advanced users. 
Please do not feel hindered to implement something by my comments. I am not 
the person who will judge if this should be part of Quanta or not. I just 
want to prevent that you invested a lot of work and at the end it is not very 
usefull because you did not know about some details. 

Jens
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