[css-fonts-3] font-variant-numeric

Hey all,

I think the font-variant-numeric property could use a little love. Compared to:

  font-variant-caps
  font-variant-ligatures
  font-variant-alternates

I'd much sooner expect it to be named font-variant-numerals. The "numeric" name is awkward because it's an adjective, not a noun like most CSS properties.

It also has four values that have unnecessary abbreviation:

  lining-nums
  oldstyle-nums
  proportional-nums
  tabular-nums

Since the property is pretty rarely used itself, I think abbreviating "numerals" to "nums" isn't worth saving the 4 extra characters, at the expense of clarity and memory; I'm always forgetting that I have to abbreviate there.

And then "oldstyle" should be "old-style" instead, since that's another exception to the rule that is going to be really hard to remember.

Hope this is the right place to voice these concerns!


—
ian storm taylor
ianstormtaylor.com