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

(I am a self-taught "hobbyist" web designer who works on only a handful of projects, mostly personal or volunteer-based.)

I think the pros of a newly named release outweigh the downsides, but I do think that it should be easier to learn how the CSSWG processes in general. The _only_ reason that I understand the process now is from listening to @rachelandrew's conference talks. Prior to 2017, I had no idea that CSS had been broken into modules. I just assumed that there was no CSS4 because CSS3 had not been fully implemented or finalized. 

I think it's important that it be easier to understand the process, but I would also find great value in just having a list of new properties/concepts that are "ready". My suggestion would be to use the "are there 2 implementations" milestone to decide if something is "ready". 

I don't have particularly strong feelings on CSS4 vs. CSS2020 or the annual vs. every 3 years' ideas. I do think CSS4 could be confusing after reading/hearing so often that no such thing exists - but it also took me several years to ever encounter them. This might sound crazy, but maybe it's too late for CSS4 and it should just skip to CSS5?

Annual releases sound like a lot of work for the CSSWG, and it could either be good or bad for developers. On one hand, a short list of new features every year is probably easier to keep up with than a larger list. On the other hand, a short list every year would more greatly add to the feeling of "I can't keep up". It may be easier for developers to 1up their skills less frequently.

Others have suggested that the list of features should come from authors; I think that's a good idea, and I would also suggest that maybe the community/authors could take a larger role in defining and maintaining the versions instead of that work falling to the CSSWG editors. 

Overall, I like this idea, but there are clearly a lot of decisions to be made and concerns to address. Even for someone, like me, who works on very few team projects, I can think of _several_ situations where it would have saved me a lot of headaches if I could have just said: "we're building the new layout with CSS4".

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Received on Friday, 21 February 2020 19:04:41 UTC