Re: Introducing WhatTF

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote:

> We'll nail things down more explicitly in the first meeting, but the
> idea is that our current approach of delivering a new layout mode
> every 5 years or so isn't sustainable; they're too complex and the
> whole thing is too slow.  Beyond core "layout modes" (like Flexbox,
> etc) there's a lot of other stuff that generally falls under the
> rubric of "box-tree manipulation" (like Regions, and the constellation
> of functionality surrounding their core concept, like running headers,
> footnotes, etc.) which, again, takes a long time to go from "idea" to
> "usable on mass-market websites".
>
> While there's still value in finding the highest-impact stuff in this
> realm and standardizing it with CSS syntax, we feel that for CSS to
> continue to be viable in the future, we need to open up these sorts of
> APIs to developers more directly, allowing them to define their own
> layout managers/etc with lower-level box-creation/manipulation
> primitives.  This TF's goal is to figure out how to do this in a way
> that's compatible with the perf concerns of today's and tomorrow's
> browsers.
>

Thanks, that's helpful. Someone should have said so at the outset :-).

Personally I would have framed it as "extensible CSS".

Rob
-- 
oIo otoeololo oyooouo otohoaoto oaonoyooonoeo owohooo oioso oaonogoroyo
owoiotoho oao oboroootohoeoro oooro osoiosotoeoro owoiololo oboeo
osouobojoeocoto otooo ojouodogomoeonoto.o oAogoaoiono,o oaonoyooonoeo
owohooo
osoaoyoso otooo oao oboroootohoeoro oooro osoiosotoeoro,o o‘oRoaocoao,o’o
oioso
oaonosowoeoroaoboloeo otooo otohoeo ocooouoroto.o oAonodo oaonoyooonoeo
owohooo
osoaoyoso,o o‘oYooouo ofooooolo!o’o owoiololo oboeo oiono odoaonogoeoro
ooofo
otohoeo ofoioroeo ooofo ohoeololo.