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

I think introducing CSS4 as suggested would be a **major step backwards** for the web community.

Books based on specific versions of web specs are a thing of the past because the web moves too fast for them. Going back to this model would be doing publishers, schools and novice developers a disservice. Training models need to adapt to living standards, not the other way around. This is already happening in the form of living online books, training courses with regular updates, ... so why go back?

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I do agree that something's missing though.

These days, the way I learn about new CSS and HTML features is by reading **browsers's releases notes**. If I miss one, I'm screwed.

In contrast, I learn about new EcmaScript features thanks to the TC39 Committee's yearly release process, which provides the community with regular opportunities to write blog posts that list **exactly what's changed in the spec**.

Selecting a number of CSS Modules at various levels, saying that this is what CSS is at this point in time and giving it some name (CSS4, CSS 2020, whatever) is utterly unhelpful when it comes to keeping up with changes.

What TC39 got right is **granularity**. It's not the editions of EcmaScript that go through stages, it's the _proposals_. When a new version of the spec is released each year, I just skim through the various proposals adopted that year and I'm up to date.

Unlike EcmaScript, CSS is a set of specs, so what I propose is to **bring this level of granularity down
to CSS Modules**. Learning that CSS Fonts Level 3 has achieved _Recommendation_ status tells me nothing. Learning that a specific proposal has reached maturity and been integrated into CSS Fonts, now _that's_ useful.

Once this level of granularity is in place, the **yearly release train** comes nearly for free as a way to solve CSS' marketing troubles. _CSS Fonts 2020_ becomes the reference point for all the proposals adopted that year into the living CSS Fonts Module, and _CSS 2020_ can just be the collation of all the adopted proposals.

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Received on Sunday, 1 March 2020 12:39:36 UTC