[CSS Gap Decorations] Should we add gap decorations for empty grid areas?

[shadeed]

The decoration lines are created, even for empty grid areas.

In that case, I need to position a ghost element in the empty grid areas so they can disappear.

Is there a way to fix that without adding extra HTML elements? I hope it can work and it's just me missing something in the proposal.

[captainbrosset]

I don't think this is currently covered by the proposal, but @kbabbitt will know more.
Maybe this would require a new *-rule-break:empty-area property.

[captainbrosset]

@shadeed in your example, would the empty areas ever get items in them, or would they always be empty? I'm trying to understand the use case a little more.

[shadeed]

@captainbrosset yes! on smaller sizes, they will get filled with areas. On larger ones (as in the figure attached to this issue), they will become empty.

[kbabbitt]

Thanks for the feedback and example!

I can't think of a way to achieve this under the current proposal. There are a couple of ideas we could consider; one or the other might fit better depending on how the design should respond to changes:

1. Gap Decoration Areas would allow defining different sets of decorations for different sub-areas of a grid. They were included in my initial proposal, but I currently have them deferred out of level 1 to scope down to an MVP.
2. A new property to define how gap decorations interact with empty grid cells. I'd probably start with something similar to empty-cells for tables, but I think I'd want three states: (1) decorations in all gaps; (2) decorations in gaps with an item on at least one side; (3) decorations in gaps with items on both sides.

@shadeed would either of the above work well for your use case?

[shadeed]

Thanks @kbabbitt for the reply. I would vote for the first suggestion (gap decoration areas). I like how we can fine-tune where the rule should appear by re-using grid areas.

I will probably explore the syntax and try to imagine how it will work for a real-use case. Is gap decoration areas planned to be prototyped soon?