[css-selectors-4] The column combinator is not a combinator

[InSyncWithFoo]

According to the grammar and its name, it is one:

<combinator> = '>' | '+' | '~' | [ '|' '|' ]

Yet § 3.1. Structure and Terminology says it's not:

A combinator is a condition of relationship between two elements represented by the compound selectors on either side. Combinators in Selectors Level 4 include: the descendant combinator (white space), the child combinator (U+003E, >), the next-sibling combinator (U+002B, +), and the subsequent-sibling combinator (U+007E, ~).

Am I missing something?

[andruud]

Huh. Is it an editing mistake?

[tabatkins]

It got left in the grammar, yeah.

[cdoublev]

I do not understand the change. How col || td (as in 16.1. Column combinator (||)) is supposed to match <complex-selector> now that '|' '|' is removed from <combinator>?

Maybe it could have just been listed in section 3.1. Otherwise, this is no longer required in 18. Grammar:

White space is forbidden: [...] Between the components of a <combinator>.

[bramus]

I do not understand the change. How col || td (as in 16.1. Column combinator (||)) is supposed to match <complex-selector> now that '|' '|' is removed from <combinator>?

Yeah, also not following here. Or is the plan to remove the column combinator from selectors-4?

[tabatkins]

Clearly I'd just made a second mistake, in not realizing that the column combinator was still listed as a feature in the spec. (The utter lack of implementor interest in the years since it was added likely caused me to misremember it as already having been removed.) I'll put it back for now.

[InSyncWithFoo]

@tabatkins What about Section 3.1? How is this any different from what we had when I opened this issue?

[tabatkins]

It's not. Tho technically it's still correct: the selectors do include those listed ones, there's just more than what's listed. ^_^