Re: [css4-color] #RGBA

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Brian Manthos <brianman@microsoft.com> wrote:
> I don't have the link (and didn't see it in the original mail), but I'm referring to the extension of adding the #rrggbbaa syntax (CSS4) *not* the extension of adding rgba (CSS3).
>
> If you add a "non-functional" syntax to RGB, and don't add it to HSL that suggests that HSL isn't worthy of spending the time to provide a tight non-functional syntax so that it has parity with RGB.
>
> So with the CSS4 change, RGB is now two steps ahead of HSL -- it has rgb(), rgba(), #rrggbb, and #rrggbbaa whereas HSL only has hsl() and hsla().

#rgba is nothing more than a completion of #rgb.  It's not a separate
new feature.  It's just us maintaining feature parity between the
syntaxes.

As well, this isn't a race.  There are three color syntaxes.  The fact
that two of them happen to refer to the same color-space is
irrelevant.  #rgb syntax doesn't exist because it's necessary, it
exists because it's very familiar to coders and was already used in
HTML.  Inventing a brand new terse syntax for HSL has no such benefit.

There is no reason to spend time and effort trying to invent a totally
new terse syntax for HSL just to maintain the theoretical purity of
all color-spaces having similar options.

~TJ