Re: [css-color] Starting CSS Color 4

On Wednesday 2013-04-03 14:47 -0700, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote:
> I just drafted up a CSS Color 4 draft.  It's only a few changes from level 3:
> 
> * rgb() and rgba() functions now accept <number> rather than <integer>.
> * hsl() and hsla() functions now accept <angle> as well as <number> for hues.
> * All uses of <alpha-value> now accept <percentage> as well as <number>.
> * 4 and 8-digit hex colors have been added, to specify transparency.

So syntax expansions have a cost in compatibility and confusion:
when authors don't realize which is the newer syntax and which is
the older syntax, they'll inadvertently create content that doesn't
work in older browsers, and potentially spend time debugging that.
Language syntaxes don't, in general, allow any syntax that an author
might think of.

If the initial syntax draft had allowed multiple options I think
that would have been different, but I'm really not convinced that
it's worth the churn of expanding the syntax, even if these options
might have been better choices if we were starting over.

-David

-- 
𝄞   L. David Baron                         http://dbaron.org/   𝄂
𝄢   Mozilla                           http://www.mozilla.org/   𝄂

Received on Thursday, 4 April 2013 20:34:03 UTC