Re: [css-variables] the new ED for CSS Variables

I'd also like to keep a long view here with respect to other features like
mixins and user-defined functions. The current var-based syntax seems very
unnatural in those contexts.

Chris

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Dirk Pranke <dpranke@chromium.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:26 PM, Arron Eicholz
> <Arron.Eicholz@microsoft.com> wrote:
> > On Friday, February 17, 2012 2:43 PM Chris Eppstein wrote:
> >>Variables are a new primitive. Seems justified.
> >
> > Altering the core grammar takes a great deal of investigation. An
> alteration to the core grammar requires us to analyze all 400+ existing,
> proposed and suggested properties, including SVG properties, (there are
> actually 606 by my last count, but who is keeping track). We must determine
> if any of them have to be updated, altered or changed to account for this
> new primitive. Don't forget to multiply all the values that all those
> properties take and how they will be affected. This is an extensive amount
> of work and who knows what we might miss when looking at all the values
> that those properties take.
> >
> > Now take into account the OM and Javascript side of things and even how
> frameworks interact. Will a '$' interfere or makes things confusing? My
> guess is it will, at the very least it will make things confusing. It also
> wouldn't shock me if it broke a Javascript library somewhere.
> >
> > In the end the cost is very high for changing the core grammar. Going
> with 'data-' or 'var-' really doesn't have much impact in this regard and
> would be the best solution to move things quickly.
> >
>
> Is "move things quickly" really the priority? It seems like "have the
> most intuitive syntax" would be a more important goal. Of course,
> "don't break the web" is probably a more important goal still :)
>
> FWIW, if we were to keep the currently proposed notation (more or
> less), "var-" seems better than "data-" to me; I too see the potential
> confusion between this and data- attributes in HTML, and data- doesn't
> scream "variable" or "value" to me.
>
> -- Dirk
>