Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars

Scott Buckley; Anthony M. Sloane; Matthew Roberts

doi:10.1145/2984043.2989216

Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars

Scott Buckley, Anthony M. Sloane, Matthew Roberts

School of Computing

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution

Abstract

Layout for web documents is a complex process described by the lengthy prose Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) specification. It is difficult to ensure that implementations match this specification. We show how an implementation can more closely match the specification by using attribute grammars to define layout computations. Particularly, we show how high-level patterns encode the terminology of the specification, discriminating between elements using the same language as in the specification. We also present a new method of injecting artificial structure into an existing tree using reference attribute grammars. The result is a high-level executable specification for CSS layout that can form the basis for a full declarative implementation.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	SPLASH Companion 2016
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity
Editors	Eelco Visser
Place of Publication	New York, NY
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	29-30
Number of pages	2
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450344371
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2984043.2989216
Publication status	Published - 2016
Event	ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications : Software for Humanity - Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 30 Oct 2016 → 4 Nov 2016

Conference

Conference	ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications : Software for Humanity
City	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Period	30/10/16 → 4/11/16

Keywords

Cascading Style Sheets
attribute grammars
language specification

Access to Document

10.1145/2984043.2989216

Cite this

Buckley, S., Sloane, A. M., & Roberts, M. (2016). Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars. In E. Visser (Ed.), SPLASH Companion 2016: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity (pp. 29-30). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2984043.2989216

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title = "Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars",

abstract = "Layout for web documents is a complex process described by the lengthy prose Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) specification. It is difficult to ensure that implementations match this specification. We show how an implementation can more closely match the specification by using attribute grammars to define layout computations. Particularly, we show how high-level patterns encode the terminology of the specification, discriminating between elements using the same language as in the specification. We also present a new method of injecting artificial structure into an existing tree using reference attribute grammars. The result is a high-level executable specification for CSS layout that can form the basis for a full declarative implementation.",

keywords = "Cascading Style Sheets, attribute grammars, language specification",

author = "Scott Buckley and Sloane, {Anthony M.} and Matthew Roberts",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1145/2984043.2989216",

language = "English",

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editor = "Visser, {Eelco }",

booktitle = "SPLASH Companion 2016",

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note = "ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications : Software for Humanity ; Conference date: 30-10-2016 Through 04-11-2016",

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Buckley, S, Sloane, AM & Roberts, M 2016, Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars. in E Visser (ed.), SPLASH Companion 2016: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, pp. 29-30, ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications : Software for Humanity, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 30/10/16. https://doi.org/10.1145/2984043.2989216

Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars. / Buckley, Scott; Sloane, Anthony M.; Roberts, Matthew.
SPLASH Companion 2016: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity. ed. / Eelco Visser. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery, 2016. p. 29-30.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution

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ER -

Specifying CSS layout with reference attribute grammars

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Keywords

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