Re: box-shadow and border-image and dashes

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 9:25 AM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Feb 24, 2009, at 10:54 AM, "Robert O'Callahan" <robert@ocallahan.org>
> wrote:
>
> I think the desire to add a CSS keyword or property for each wanted feature
> is misguided.
>  <http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2009/02/filters_librari.html>
> http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2009/02/filters_librari.HTML
>
>
> You are entitled to your opinion. But for often used decorations, it is
> much easier for authors to write in CSS than in SVG.
>

The path of least resistance will always be to add a CSS property or keyword
for each desired effect. Unfortunately that leads to a bloated spec, bloated
browsers, and you still leave high-and-dry authors whose precise needs
weren't anticipated by the working group years earlier.

And once CSS has grown to have a huge number of properties and keywords, the
properties having complex values with esoteric syntax, the only way for
authors to effectively use it will be to copy and paste examples, at which
point you've lost any putative advantage over using library files. (Arguably
this has already happened.)

You yourself argued that it was important to be able to change the color or
> size of a shadow on mouseover without having to link to a different file for
> each state. Yet you now would do essentially the same thing with a different
> variation in SVG XML for each shadow variation?
>

You can store as many effects as you like in a single external file and
refer to them by ID. If you want script control over individual filter
parameters, put the filter in your own document. In that case, you can set
parameters via DOM APIs instead of having to mash strings together to set a
complex property value.

Rob
-- 
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah
53:5-6]