The Progress of CSS

Lost in the various Holy Wars of the "CSS is doomed" thread is the 
concern about time.  I think that is an important and valid concern.

Although the current CSS2.1 spec is the only version of CSS2 directly 
linked from the W3C home page, 2.1 still carries the notation, "It is 
inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress." 
The "current" Recommendation, therefore, is CSS2.  CSS 2.1, moreover, 
says of itself that compared to CSS2, it "corrects a few errors" and 
"adds a few highly-requested features".  I read that as saying, in 
short, that it is a relatively minor revision.

That's as of today, 1 July, 2005.  Yet the "current" version carries 
the date 18-May-1998.  That's more than SEVEN YEARS for a relatively 
minor revision.

Whatever message you have taken from the rest of the thread, I think 
it should be clear that the process is taking too long and effort 
should be made to speed it up.  I'm not meaning to suggest that the 
working group is lazy, or that resources are being squandered. 
Mostly I am suggesting that these limitations should be recognized, 
and the process itself should be streamlined.

If CSS3 has to wait to become a formal Rec more than seven years 
after CSS2.1 is finally approved, CSS may, in fact, be doomed.

-- 

-Adam Kuehn

Received on Friday, 1 July 2005 20:20:14 UTC