Taking Stock

I signed the [last 
newsletter](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/newsletters/blob/master/RICG-newsletter-2014-12-12.md) 
“see you in a couple of weeks!” ... four weeks ago. Oops! Food, 
friends, festivities, and family happened, and I happily dropped off of 
the face of the internet for a month. After catching up on the logs, 
lists and repos, it seems I wasn’t the only one. The RICG as a whole 
seems to have collectively settled our brains for a long winter’s nap. 
As we re-start our engines, now seems like an excellent time to take 
stock of where the RICG is, and what we’re hoping to achieve in the 
new year.


## Browser implementations

Respimg features are under active development in every major rendering 
engine.

Blink is the only engine with a full, shipping, implementation of the 
spec. Blink supports `srcset` with both `w` and `x` descriptors, 
`picture`, `source media` *and* `source type`. This is not to say that 
Blink’s implementation is done, of course; Yoav (so lively and quick) 
[continues to polish](https://codereview.chromium.org/839783002/); I 
expect Blink’s `srcset` picking-process, especially, to get more 
sophisticated over the coming year, perhaps incorporating user 
preferences and/or bandwidth-awareness.

A full respimg implementation should be landing in Gecko soon, but after 
point-man John Schoenick left Mozilla for a position at Valve back in 
November, progress has slowed. John [isn’t yet 
sure](http://ircbot.responsiveimages.org/bot/log/respimg/2015-01-08#T107603) 
whether he’ll complete the implementation himself or hand it off to 
someone else; either way, the lion’s share of the work has been done, 
so hopefully this lands soon.

Webkit currently supports `srcset` with `x` descriptors, and Yoav is 
[laying](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137496) the 
[foundations](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134488) for a full 
implementation. He’s doing what he can, but patch review times have 
been lengthy and communication from the core WebKit team seems a bit 
sporadic.

Finally, [the IE team announced in 
December](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/12/08/status-roadmap-update-srcset-lt-main-gt-element-and-date-inputs-in-development.aspx) 
that they’re actively implementing `srcset` with `x` descriptors. 
Better yet, they continue to wink their eyes and twist their heads re: 
the rest of the spec’s features (which are officially still “under 
consideration”) in ways that give me to know we have nothing to dread.


## Picturefill development

How to deal with all of these incomplete and in-development 
implementations, in the meantime? With 
[Picturefill](https://github.com/scottjehl/picturefill) of course! I 
can’t say anything about the state of the Picturefill better than [Mat 
did here](https://github.com/scottjehl/picturefill/issues/374) — 
version 2.2 provides a great polyfill that thousands of developers are 
relying on each and every day, but to achieve total spec compliance and 
optimal performance, there’s work to be done.


## Developer evangelism

The RICG continues to 
[make](https://twitter.com/jeremiahjmartin/status/542775285049876480) a 
[lot](http://aneventapart.com/event/atlanta-2015) of 
[clatter](http://www.futureinsights.com/home/responsive-images-are-here-its-up-to-you-to-make-the-web-for.html) 
about what is the matter with non-responsive images.

And it is working. I’m addicted to checking the 
[Chromestatus](https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/523) 
[usage](https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/524) 
[charts](https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/521), 
watching them go up and up. It’s uniquely gratifying to see the 
RICG’s work reverberate across the web.

Getting respimg baked into as many CMSes as possible will probably do 
more than anything to push those numbers up. 
[Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/node/2260061) and 
[Wordpress](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/wp-tevko-responsive-images) 
are in our sights.


## Spec work

The CSS [`image-set()` 
spec](http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-images-3/#image-set-notation) is but a 
skeleton, full of red issue boxes *aka* holes.

And, though the respimg-in-markup spec has largely settled down, there 
are a few [on-hold 
issues](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/picture-element/labels/onhold) 
in the repo that constitute a roadmap for future development. Once the 
first round of implementations stabilizes, expect more descriptors to be 
added to `srcset`: `h`, `type()`, and maybe `integrity()`.


## Element queries

Everything I’ve spoken of so far is mop-up. The biggest thing on the 
RICG’s plate in 2015 isn’t related to responsive images at all. 
It’s Element Queries. EQs are currently just a vision, dancing in our 
heads. If we’re going to make them concrete in 2015, we’re going to 
need all of the help we can get. Perhaps you, good webizen, have made 
some sort of resolution recently to become more involved in web 
standards, to contribute to your professional community, or to undertake 
more ambitious, challenging, and meaningful work? Contribute!

- Use [an experimental 
prollyfill](https://github.com/jonathantneal/hitch-element-queries) to 
get a feel for what sorts of problems Element Queries are good at 
solving.
- Help us codify those use cases in [a document that will guide all 
future work](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/eq-usecases).
- Publish neat demos in our currently-empty [demo 
repo](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/eq-demos).
- Or just bring your EQ questions, concerns, hopes, and dreams to the 
RICG [mailing 
list](http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-respimg/), [IRC 
channel](http://ircbot.responsiveimages.org/), or the [Use Cases GitHub 
repo](https://github.com/ResponsiveImagesCG/eq-usecases/issues).

> On implementor, on spec editor, on randos and friends,
> On developers writing CSS, HTML, and, uh, code with parens?
> To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
> Let us make modular components that adapt based on their layout size a 
> reality for all!


See you in a couple of weeks! (for reals this time)

—eric