Re: [css3-images] Fwd: CSS Gradient Notation

Robert Biggs wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I was checking out the latest document http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-images to check up on the status of CSS gradients. I have
> to say I was shocked and dismayed to see that you're proposition the requirement for prepositions to be used with the
> positional keywords. I was scratching my head for quite some time. Is that to make it clearer to English speakers what the
> keywords do? Requiring English preposition will not make it clearer to people who don't speak English. If you want to make it
> more grammatical English, you should include the indefinite article, e.g. "to the bottom left". Or maybe an adverb or a
> gerund: "flowing towards the bottom right". And for radial gradients: "positioned at the closest side". And while you're at
> it, you could get rid of the hyphens in the radial keywords.
>
> I'm being facetious. When the Webkit guys first presented CSS gradients, the Mozilla people complained about the notation
> being too complicated and came up with a simpler notation. I'm sure you laughed at being required to write from(color),
> to(color). Funny how you're now suggesting that we have to use prepositions ("to" and "at") with keywords. Don't hobble CSS
> with English grammatical requirements. No body needs an understanding of English grammar to write HTML or JavaScript or CSS,
> until now.
>
> By the way, in Spanish, the word for "to" is "a" and the word for at is "a". Spanish speakers will not see your prepositions
> as a clarification of anything.

Hi Robert,
This is an official response from the CSS Working Group.

The CSS Working Group reviewed your comment on linear-gradient() and considered
the following options:
   A. Sticking to the 'to <endpoint-keyword>' syntax adopted in the September 2011 WD
   B. Reverting to the old '<startpoint-keyword>' syntax in the earlier WDs
   C. Supporting both syntaxes

It was pointed out that gradient generators outputting unprefixed linear-gradient()
syntax use the old syntax. It was also pointed out that the syntax for gradients
have changed multiple times during the lifetime of the module.

The Working Group resolved to take the first option, which is, to reject your
request to drop the preposition in linear-gradient() "because this has been
tweaked too much. It's a reasonable compromise and changing it is not OK any
more."

The minutes for this meeting are available here:
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2012Mar/0195.html

Please let me know if you find this acceptable.

~fantasai

Received on Friday, 23 March 2012 07:12:12 UTC