CSSWG Spec Markup

This page will eventually document the CSSWG's spec markup and serve as a manual. Currently it is serving as a scratchspace.

The style sheet that implements most of our special markup has a master on dev.w3.org.

The CSS specs use lists in a variety of ways:

• as logically belonging to a paragraph (sometimes as a continuation of the last sentence in the previous paragraph, which may or may not continue in the next paragraph). (example)
• as a paragraph-level structure (example). This is the most common.
• as a higher-level structure that contains paragraphs. (example, example)

Definition lists in particular have several uses

• They are used to define CSS values. (example) These should be marked up with <dt>, <dfn>, and <code>, but are often missing one or the other.
• They are used for defining other terms, e.g. in a glossary. (example, example) These should use <dfn> also.
• They may be used in some other random applications for which the structure is appropriate ( need to track down examples).

Paragraph, heading, and list margins and spacing should be designed in a way that appropriately handles these structures.

CSS specs use a variety of inline markup:

<code class=property>

for CSS property names

<code class=css>

for abitrary CSS snippets and CSS values

<dfn>

for the defining instance of a term, whether in a <dl> or in a paragraph. Must be easily scannable

<i>

for instance-of-term; this auto-links to the defining instance, if there is one in the spec. These are used very very frequently in some cases (example, example) so their styling should not be distracting.

<a>

for other kinds of cross-linking

<em> and <strong>

used per HTML5 (but are fairly uncommon); default styling should be fine

<var>

for variables in mathematical or syntactical formulas

Specs use tables for data. In some cases, we have some very complex table structures, which should be styled appropriately. Writing modes and Text have some good examples: (simple table, super-complex table, common-complexity table, another example)

We also use tables for indices, like the full property index and the selectors overview.