A Constraint-Based Specification for Box Layout in CSS2

Author: Brian Michalowski

Published as UW Tech Report UW-CSE-98-06-03

Abstract

Cascading Style Sheets provide a flexible mechanism for governing the appearance of Web pages. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 (CSS2) are an enhancement to the original CSS1 specification, giving Web page designers additional control over the appearance of Web pages. However, the CSS2 specification is written in English, leaving open the possibility of ambiguity or inconsistency. We present a formalization of a subset of the CSS2 specification using constraints hierarchies to help ensure that potential problems in the specification are caught and corrected. We also comment on the formalization process.

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