[css-grid] Specification confusing, needs improvement

After reading through the CSS3 Grid Layout Module spec @ [ 
http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-grid/ ] I feel confused.

The specification introduces quite a lot new (?) CSS syntax constructs, like 
the slash ("/") character for column spanning or identifiers to identify 
column line names. I'm not quite sure whether this syntax complexity is 
really necessary to accomplish the goals of a grid layout, or if these could 
be easily avoided giving the spec a second thought.

For instance, instead of using a slash character to give a span value, it'd 
be sufficient to introduce a new property like, e.g., "grid-column-span".

The specification, to me, doesn't get clear about what actually is getting 
defined by all the new rules. It lacks a common thread. Each of the property 
definitions seems unaligned and out of context compared to other CSS Grid 
Layout properties.

The "grid-template-areas" property syntax looks very "colloquial" and 
non-mathematical. To me, the "." property value proves to be the placeholder 
for the bad idea behind this property design. And the "grid-template-areas" 
property contradicts the "grid-column"/"grid-column" properties. What if 
both, areas and grid-columns/rows are getting applied to an element?

My conclusion after reading the spec:

In general, the current CSS Grid Layout specification unnecessarily bloats 
CSS. The specification ...

(1) is missing a clear, deductive approach, thereby losing track on 
unnecessary properties / property values.
(2) complicates the CSS language by unnecessarily introducing new syntax 
constructs.
(3) creates a whole bunch of new, grid specific properties where more 
general (perhaps even already existing) properties (applicable to other 
layout types) might be more appropriate.

I humbly like to suggest to review the CSS Grid Layout specification.

Regards,
Axel Dahmen
www.axeldahmen.de

Received on Monday, 11 August 2014 18:23:46 UTC