RE: [css-grid][css-syntax] Usage of lone parentheses across CSS?

Hi there,

 

I think the decision to use bare parentheses to group line names in CSS Grid is still somewhat a controversy. 

 

I’ve never been a huge fan of it, because I think it prevents future css-values primitives to make use of it [1] and the SASS team said it conflicted their ‘calc’ equivalent [2]. The authors of the spec themselves didn’t really make a well-argumented choice, mainly choosing for something that looked good to them. [2]

 

The issue is that, to move away from the metastable statu-quo, a better option is necessary; and we haven’t seen one until now. I wanted to give this thread another try.

 

The idea I’ve had is to use a “switch-case” like syntax. This proposal is certainly audacious but, I think, not extravagant. To give you a better idea of what I’ve in mind, I took some examples from the spec and converted them to the proposed syntax:

 

    grid-template: auto 1fr auto /

      header-top: "a   a   a"    header-bottom:

      main-top: "b   b   b" 1fr main-bottom;

 

      grid-template-columns:

        a:        auto

        b:        minmax(min-content, 1fr)

        b: c: d:  repeat(2, e: 40px)

                  repeat(5, auto);

 

Syntax-wise, a line name is represented by an identifier followed by a colon (except if it’s last token as I propose the last colon can be implied). 

 

What do you think? Do you like it?

 

Best regards,

François

 

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Jun/0393.html

[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Dec/0302.html