Re: [css-variables] Using $foo as the syntax for variables

* Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:
>I have no idea how you define "notable" besides "breaks a non-trivial
>amount of public content".

Well, breaking conforming style sheets by removing a feature that has
seen little use without a deprecation cycle would be different from
breaking non-conforming style sheets by clarifying an ambiguity in re-
covery rules, to offer an example. Similarily, changing very old rules
is different from a change to very recent rules. There are many factors
and they may "add up" to make some something notable.

>Slippery slope arguments aren't very convincing.  They are also
>centered around either theoretical purity or implementor convenience,
>which are low on the order of constituencies, so making long-term
>binding decisions based on them is a bad idea.

Slippery slope arguments state that an initial action leads to a bad
outcome by way of many "slips". I did not warn of any bad outcome, I
suggested that in order to manage expectations we should discuss where
you want us to go instead of discussing this at every turn of the way.

The Working Group has a responsibility to manage expectations, and at
the moment section 4.1.1 of the CSS 2.1 Recommendation says that all
future levels of CSS use the same core syntax, and goes on to define
"the list of tokens for CSS" and then "the core syntax for CSS".

The idea behind that is that the Working Group will in fact not change
it. If you think the Working Group should abandon that idea, so you can
add new tokens for variable references and "improve" the language so
comments between sign and digits in a number are disallowed, I do not
think it is too much to ask to discuss that first and separately from
any individual changes you would like to make.
-- 
Björn Höhrmann · mailto:bjoern@hoehrmann.de · http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de
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Received on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 19:53:56 UTC