[whatwg] Reverse ordered lists

Dave Singer singer at apple.com
Wed Jan 23 11:06:03 PST 2008


At 12:53  -0600 23/01/08, Siemova wrote:
>On Jan 23, 2008 12:18 PM, Dave Singer 
><<mailto:singer at apple.com>singer at apple.com> wrote:
>
>how about assuming that if the source wants it numbered in reverse
>order, it knows what it is doing, and can tell the browser what
>number to start at?
>
>it still seems the simplest:  an attribute that gives the starting
>number (default 1) and an attribute that gives the direction
>(increasing or decreasing, default increasing).
>
>
>
>True, that's simplest to implement, but why put the onus on the 
>content author to add things up and specify a start value every 
>time? Computers are for automating such calculations. If you're 
>reversing a list, the default value for start shouldn't be 1 
>anymore; that should be the ending value, and the starting value 
>ought to be backwards-engineered from it. This is precisely how a 
>content creator would expect it to work.
>
>I'm surprised at you, being from Apple as you are. ;) Isn't the idea 
>to make using such a function simple and intuitive, even if it has 
>to be a little more complicated on the back-end?

complicated is fine.  impossible takes a little longer;  if I don't 
have the end yet, I can't do it right, and the substitutes all seem 
ugly.
-- 
David Singer
Apple/QuickTime
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