In a previous post I noted that I had become co-editor of the Multi-column layout specification over at the CSS Working Group, and last week the first publication of that specification in over six years happened, taking the spec back to Working Draft status – Working Draft of Multi-column Layout published 5 Oct 2017.
Taking the specification back to Working Draft reflects the number of changes that have happened over the past few years, and also the changes still to make. If you want to know more about the various levels a specification goes through, take a look at this post which explains specification levels and process.
I posted to the CSS Working Group blog to announce the publication. As mentioned there I am very aware that browser incompatabilities have caused many developers to be wary of using multicol. The first step to getting those issues fixed in browsers, is to get the specification fixed. I hope I can help with that!
It’s the first specification I’ve been an editor on, so I’m still figuring out the process and finding out about the various tools that the CSS Working Group have to make working on specifications easier. That is interesting in itself, and will hopefully make me a more useful person to have around the Working Group.
Please do raise any issues you spot in the spec, or comment on those already raised. I’ve also set up a repo to collate more general Multicol related stuff. So you can always post things there that aren’t realy a direct spec issue. One thing I’d like to know about are non-Web user agents that use the spec, given the use of the specification in EPUB and print output. One of the reasons I was attracted to work on the spec was the crossover between web and print, as I’ve done a reasonable amount of work with tools such as Prince, and in creating CSS for EPUB.
Onwards to better layouts of a columnar nature!