w3c / w3c/csswg-drafts

[css-text] Prevent line break after hyphen preceded by space

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css-text-4 Needs Testcase (WPT)
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Description

I want to prevent a line break after a hyphen that is preceded by a space.

So a string like

foo bar -baz

can be broken as

foo bar
-baz

but not

foo bar -
baz

I’m not sure if this can be solved by CSS spec (e.g., a new keyword for hyphens or overflow-wrap, etc.) or if it’s a browser bug: Firefox does like described by default, Chrome doesn’t.

(Demo: https://codepen.io/valtlai/pen/WLRjeo/left/?editors=1100)

Another example

String:

foo -webkit-baz

Allowed:

foo -webkit-
baz

Disallowed:

foo -
webkit-baz

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the issue examples and the linked CodePen demo, then read the CSS Text line-breaking rules and the areas mentioned around hyphens, hyphens, and overflow-wrap. Determine whether the requested break behavior belongs in the CSS specification or reflects a browser bug. Done means the expected behavior and an appropriate standards disposition are clearly established.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
css
Domain
frontend, web-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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