Hi, Bert,

> It's apparently an idea whose time has come :-)

Exactly :)

>     bg-and-border-shorthand-whatsit: tile(foo.png, 12, 20, 12, 20)

This will also work but I think that we need also stretch flags to be
described somehow.
What do you think about following:
background-image: fill(foo.png, 12px, 20px, 12px, 20px, stretch-left,
stretch-right, ...) ?

I've created screenshots with such stretched border-n-backrounds:
http://terrainformatica.com/w3/p1/index.htm 

> Your idea of putting the four numbers in a metadata file and linking
> to that would work as well, except that such a file format isn't
> readily available and it requires a second download: first the
> metadata and then the image.

I understand that two hits is not so good but metadata file could be used
also in <IMG> or <OBJECT> elements as a source of  image.
But this might not a big deal as <span class=class-with-background-image>
could be used instead.

Best wishes,

Andrew Fedoniouk.
MS, Physics and Applied Mathematics.
Terra Informatica Software Design.
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.
+1(604) 244-1074