Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-animations-2] Reconsider the property names of the timeline-trigger’s ranges (again). (#13307)

The CSS Working Group just discussed `[css-animations-2] Reconsider the property names of the timeline-trigger’s ranges (again).`, and agreed to the following:

* `RESOLVED: change timeline-trigger-entry-range to timeline-trigger-activation-range (and no change to event triggers)`

<details><summary>The full IRC log of that discussion</summary>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: We resolved on renaming timeline-trigger-range and timeline-trigger-exit-range to timeline-trigger-entry-range and timeline-trigger-active-range<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: The names don't really match<br>
&lt;bramus> To jog y’alls memory, a trigger is a binary thing which is either inactive (untriggered) or active (triggered).<br>
&lt;bramus> For a trigger to become active, there is something that activates it.<br>
&lt;bramus> For a trigger to become inactive, there is something that deactivates it (with stateless event triggers being the exception, they can’t become inactive once activated)<br>
&lt;bramus> <br>
&lt;bramus> For event triggers specifically, that activation can be something like a pointerdown event, and the deactivation – when it’s a stateful event trigger – can then be something like a pointerup event.<br>
&lt;bramus> <br>
&lt;bramus> For timeline triggers, that activation happens when the scrolloffset is within a certain range, and the deactivation occurs when the scrolloffset is outside of a certain range. Both ranges can be the same, or they can be different as long as the second one is encompasses the first one.<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Triggers are either inactive or active<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: You need to activate the trigger or de-activate the trigger<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Activation could be something like mouse-down or deactivation could be mouse-up<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: For timeline triggers, activation is being within a certian range;de-activation is leaving the activation range<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: And the de-activation range boundaries can be bigger than the activation range<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: I read timeline-trigger-active-range as the range where the trigger is active, fine<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: But timeline-trigger-entry-range is ... confuisng<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: and also can be confusing with view-timeline entry range<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: These are unrelated concepts<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: And you can enter from either direction<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Third issue is that "entry" over-indexes on the timeline aspect. Because we also have even triggers.<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Consider the bigger picture<br>
&lt;astearns> s/even triggers/event triggers/<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: I think we should name event-trigger-activation-events and event-trigger-deactivation-events<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Doens't match<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Also it isn't the act of entering the range that activates the trigger, but being in the range<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: for example if you have the whole timeline as a range, then you're always there<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: I believe good names would have some traits<br>
&lt;bramus> They map to the general description of what triggers are<br>
&lt;bramus> It’s clear from the name what they do (Cfr. 12.4 of the Web Platform Design Principles)<br>
&lt;bramus> The consider the whole picture (i.e. all triggers, instead of just its one trigger)<br>
&lt;bramus> They are consistently(ish) named across all sorts of triggers (Cfr. 12.5 of the Web Platform Design Principles)<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: My proposal is  timeline-trigger-activation-range and timeline-trigger-active-range terminology for timeline-triggers, and event-trigger-activation-events and event-trigger-deactivation-events for event-triggers.<br>
&lt;TabAtkins> q+<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: fantasai mentioned that activation and active are a bit close<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: but I think we might be underestimating authors here<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: I did some test runs of activation + active terminology, and afaict people were following along even though names are close<br>
&lt;astearns> ack TabAtkins<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: My largest objection is that they're long words. We have shorter words that mean similar things, like event-trigger-start and event-trigger-end etc.<br>
&lt;flackr> s/activation/start sgtm<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: For the closeness, I think it's still a bit of an issue<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: Like we have scrollable vs scrolling in scroll queries. But we didn't have a better idea. But conjugation differences are kinda subtle, we try to avoid<br>
&lt;flackr> q+<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: but prefer to avoid differing based on conjugation if we can<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Trigger and untrigger?<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: doesn't really work<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Start and end is also cconfusing because a range has a range-start and a range-end longhand<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: For start/end I was saying just for events. I agree it wouldn't be appropriate for timeline ranges<br>
&lt;astearns> ack flackr<br>
&lt;ChrisLilley> on and off? go and stop?<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: I do like active-range as a name. While you're in that range, it stays active, and when you leave it, it ends, so prefer that name<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Yeah, so about renaming timeline-trigger-entry-range<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: Yes, just wanted to support that we shouldn't change the active range one<br>
&lt;fantasai> ChrisLilley: on/off or go/stop?<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: wouldn't work for timeline ranges<br>
&lt;ChrisLilley> I liked active and activate, personally<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: Not unreasonable to use those, but then you are likely to have a problem where people write one and mean the other, and might not notice that the ranges are both in use rather than cascading against each other<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Usually will want to use the shorthand<br>
&lt;fantasai> astearns: Will event triggers also use shorthands mostly?<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: I think for event triggers we can use start/end<br>
&lt;fantasai> astearns: Makes sense to have other than entry<br>
&lt;fantasai> astearns: might not need same term for timeline triggers<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: I agree<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: maybe -activate instead of -activation<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: I think that'll lead to way more typos and confusion<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: because it's so close to active<br>
&lt;TabAtkins> I agree that "activation" is better if we're locked into this concept, because it keeps the word further away from "active" in spelling<br>
&lt;fantasai> astearns: So proposed resolution to change timeline-trigger-entry-range to timeline-trigger-activation-range (and no change to event triggers)<br>
&lt;fantasai> RESOLVED: change timeline-trigger-entry-range to timeline-trigger-activation-range (and no change to event triggers)<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: What's the initial value?<br>
&lt;fantasai> TabAtkins: auto<br>
&lt;TabAtkins> or rather, it's normal for some, auto for others<br>
&lt;TabAtkins> lol<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: If you only set one, it defaults to the other<br>
&lt;fantasai> flackr: yes, that's the direction we changed the implementation to<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: Ok. edits needed, and we need to publish ...<br>
&lt;fantasai> bramus: Resolved to pull into own spec<br>
&lt;fantasai> fantasai: Yes, but let's get them edited and published. :)<br>
</details>


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Received on Wednesday, 28 January 2026 17:59:54 UTC