xmlhack: CSS Box Model module

The W3C has released a Working Draft of CSS3 module: the box model, extending and clarifying the basic layout model of CSS.

The module defines a forward path while retaining backward compatibility:

"All the properties and features described here that also exist in CSS level 2 are intended to be backwards compatible, except in very rare cases that are explicitly marked. There is a small number of new properties, mostly to deal with vertical writing, and some properties from CSS2 have become shorthand properties for more detailed new ones in CSS3."

The display property, critical for CSS rendering of XML documents (identifying block, inline, table, etc. presentation), has been retained as a shorthand for two new properties, display-role and display-model.

Although the module doesn't directly reference the Area Model of XSL's Formatting Objects, the module can be compared to that work and its associated objects and properties, as well as the discussion in XSL's XSL Areas and the CSS Box Model.

The W3C has also recently released Working Drafts of CSS3 module: Values and Units and CSS3 module: Cascading and inheritance .