Re: [csswg-drafts] Let’s Define CSS 4 (#4770)

I'm not a fan of this idea, and it's been raised to me in person in the past, and I wasn't a fan then. The reasons being that I think what authors want out of a CSS4 is a declaration that a certain set of specifications are "ready to go", and can be used. However, this goes against the real situation which is that it completely depends on the project you are working on, what you are able to use. From talking with the developers I teach in workshops they work on projects with wildly differing requirements, based on the users of the sites and applications they build.

Then on a practical level, we have specifications where a big chunk of the spec is well supported in browsers, and then some of it has no support at all. As an example, Box Alignment, it was tricky enough to figure out how to represent support when documenting this for MDN, as we have properties and values that are supported fully by browsers in Grid, but not at all in Block Layout. We have gaps which are supported in Grid and Multicol, but not by Chrome in Flex. So where would Box Alignment live in our CSS4? What about Fragmentation - is that "production-ready" in any way that would make sense to authors?

I think on an ongoing basis this would also add extra overhead to the decisions we make as a group. Not only will it be a case of deciding whether to add a feature based on the maturity level of a spec in our own process, we will have this additional abstraction of a CSS level we are promising authors. It's more work, do we need more work?

Also, CSS is not just for web browsers, so how does this fit into the world of print?

I don't think that it's the place of the CSSWG to tell authors what is ready to use on their websites, because we don't know the support requirements of their websites. I think it would add extra overhead to our work, and store up problems in the future when we are then pushed to declare a CSS5, and have to figure out what that means for everything we work on.

I think if anything, as a group we can create better material to explain how the process really works, which would better enable authors to follow along. I think we are doing web developers a disservice to act as if they can't understand our process. It just needs clearly explaining. I've never explained how modules and levels work to a group and had people confused by that. And, if there needs to be any kind of "this is what is production ready for the web" that seems more like something which should come from web browsers themselves, it feels like the MDN Browser Compat Data would be a great start for that. I'm certainly not against coming up with guidance on this stuff, I just don't think that declaring a CSS4 is going to help.

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Received on Wednesday, 12 February 2020 20:02:11 UTC