Re: [whatwg] The src-N proposal

On 18/11/13 03:25, Daniel Cheng wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 12:19 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 5:16 AM, Ryosuke Niwa <rniwa@apple.com> wrote:
>>> Without starting a debate on what semantics or aesthetics mean, syntax
>> is a big deal.  A bad syntax can totally kill a feature.
>>
>> Believe me, I agree; I named my last coding project "Bikeshed", after all.
>> ^_^
>>
>> This is why I find it puzzling that a syntax accepted by the RICG and
>> a lot of authors is being shot down by a few implementors.  This is
>> why I've been classifying the objections as "personal aesthetic
>> concerns" - I don't know how to classify them otherwise.  The proposed
>> syntax doesn't seem to offend average authors, who grasp it well
>> enough (it's a pretty simple translation from what they already liked
>> in <picture>).  It just offends a few of you from WebKit, some of whom
>> have been a bit hyperbolic in expressing their dislike.
>>
>> ~TJ
>>
>
> ​I think it's worth pointing out that there are some ​Chromium/Blink
> developers that don't like the multiple attribute syntax either (for what
> it's worth, I am one of them).

Yeah, I think this characterization of the debate as "Apple vs the 
World" is inaccurate an unhelpful. I think that the src-N proposal is 
very ugly indeed. This ugliness creates real issues e.g. if I have 
src-1, src-2 [...] and I decide I want a rule that is consulted between 
src-1 and src-2, I need to rewrite all my attribute names. Whilst this 
might produce a pleasant rush of nostalgia for children of the 80s 
brought up on 8-bit Basic, for everyone else it seems like an 
error-prone drag.

So I think the question is not "is this proposal unpleasant"; it is. The 
question is "is this less unpleasant than the alternatives". That is 
much less clear cut, and there is room for reasonable people to disagree.

Received on Monday, 18 November 2013 10:41:22 UTC