[css3-values] (Un)Quoted User-Defined Values (was: [css3-font] unquoted font family names with whitespace) from Christoph Päper on 2012-03-19 (www-style@w3.org from March 2012)

From: Christoph Päper <christoph.paeper@crissov.de>
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:57:41 +0100
To: www-style CSS <www-style@w3.org>
Message-Id: <37FC169F-1322-4758-B9E2-7670D72F68B9@crissov.de>

John Daggett:

> But since authors are human and don't keep parsing rules at their fingertips, I think it's fine to suggest a rule of thumb. Maybe it's not some shining ideal but it works in practice.

It’s not just font family names, though. Currently the CSS rules for string values are basically this:

— Pre-defined keywords MUST NOT be quoted.
— User-defined keywords MAY be quoted.
— Some user-defined keywords MUST be quoted.

I think it would be simpler and would better match what authors think and instructors teach, if reduced to this rule of thumb:

— Pre-defined keywords MUST NOT be quoted.
— User-defined keywords SHOULD be quoted.

Use that whenever dealing with authors, whereas for implementers the former rules remain.

Received on Monday, 19 March 2012 11:58:16 UTC