Re: [css4-images] Color stop syntax

On Sep 21, 2012, at 1:44 PM, "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Neither I nor anyone in the 300 authors in the audience could see what was
>> wrong with it, until I gave up and decided to move on to the next demo.
>> Of course, I later realized what the problem was. The color stop position
>> was before the color. But why is that disallowed? There doesnĄ¯t seem to be
>> any reason to require it and traditionally in CSS order doesnĄ¯t matter when
>> disambiguation is possible regardless of it.
> 
> Probably because I accidentally made it order-dependent early on, and
> never thought to change it.  I don't see any particular reason to keep
> it order-dependent - as you say, CSS traditionally lets us use any
> order as long as it's unambiguous.

I don't think it was accidental. I recall us discussing it, and agreeing that '50% black' sounded more like the description of a mid-tone gray than like a position. Especially to designers who had worked in print that used to spec screened colors that way. 

I also think it is easier to learn when the order is always the same. There is no confusion about whether it means something different when it is in a different position. We also don't allow the color stop list to come before the direction part, when in theory we could have.

Received on Friday, 21 September 2012 21:17:24 UTC