'animation' and 'transition' ambiguity?

Greetings,

    Apologies if this has been addressed, but my searches of the 
archives came up dry.  Please point me to the resolution if I missed 
it.
    I'm wondering if the current value definitions of 'animation' and 
'transition' are problematic.  Each one allows any number of 
comma-separated shorthand values, but that's not what concerns me. 
Here's what 'animation' allows for each comma-separated bit:

<animation-name> || <animation-duration> || 
<animation-timing-function> || <animation-delay> || 
<animation-iteration-count> || <animation-direction>

And for 'transition':

<'transition-property'> || <'transition-duration'> || 
<'transition-timing-function'> || <'transition-delay'>

The differences in quotation-mark usage in is the originals, but 
that's also not what concerns me.
    What concerns me is this:

    animation: rocker ease 3s 5s;
    transition: fade 0.25s 0.5s linear;

How can UAs know which time value is the delay and which is the 
duration?  As far as I know, '||' still means "any number of these 
can occur in any order" (see 
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-syntax/#property-def-value).

-- 
Eric A. Meyer (eric@meyerweb.com)     http://meyerweb.com/

Received on Thursday, 20 January 2011 22:32:22 UTC