w3c / w3c/csswg-drafts

[css-align-3] Abspos alignment in vertical axis should care about align-self, just like horizontal/justify-self

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#4,983 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Closed Accepted by CSSWG Resolution css-align-3 Needs Edits
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Description

When an abspos element has left:auto and right:auto, the sizing/positioning defined in CSS2 is partially dependent on 'direction'. In Align, we generalized that to instead depend on justify-self; this automatically respects 'direction', but allows alignment on either side without screwing with your text direction, and allows more powerful things too, such as center alignment. (Defined in section 6.5.)

CSS2 didn't have any special rules for vertical alignment, tho: if they're both auto, you just treat bottom as 0 and then solve normally. So, we didn't follow up and apply the same "upgrade" to abspos+align-self.

That seems inconsistent and bad; the self-alignment properties apply in whatever axis the item is "alone" in its container, and abspos elements are alone in both axises. If you set place-self: center, it would be annoying and weird for it to center horizontally, but not vertically.

So, the 6.5 rules for sizing/aligning should similarly apply in the vertical axis for align-self.

Contributor guide

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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 CSS Align section 6.5 and the CSS2 absolutely positioned sizing and positioning rules described in the issue. Trace how the horizontal justify-self treatment maps to the vertical axis, then update the specification so align-self governs the corresponding auto-inset cases and confirm the wording consistently covers place-self.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
css
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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