Re: [css-grid][css-syntax] Usage of lone parentheses across CSS?

> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 2:22 AM, François REMY
> <francois.remy.dev@outlook.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I’ve been reviewing the CSS Grid specification yesterday, and I was left
> > wondering whether using parentheses to denote line names was a very good
> > idea.
> >
> > At first, I would like to start collecting more information about the
> > reasons behind this choice, and the existing parenthesis usage in CSS, 
> > so I
> > wondered whether there is any other location in CSS where parentheses 
> > are
> > used in a non-functional way inside propery values. I couldn’t find one 
> > but
> > it’s also totally possible something escaped my attention. If so, I 
> > would be
> > happy to get some pointers.
>
> It's just a nameless function, because we didn't need the clutter of a
> function name there.

Ok, so it's kinda an accident.


> > Given the area templates is defined using strings (grid-template-areas:
> > “area-1 area-2...”) and used as identifiers (grid-area: area-1), I’m
> > wondering about the opportunity to do the same thing for named lines 
> > (so,
> > replacing ‘grid-template-rows: (line-name) size...;’ by 
> > ‘grid-template-rows:
> > “line-name” size...;’).
>
> I'd prefer not trying to change anything here unless there's a bad
> problem with the current syntax, or the new syntax has some amazing
> benefit.

I understand. I'm just wondering whether or not we should save "(...)" for a 
yet-to-be-defined more iconical usage instead. Putting things between 
parentheses usually carry some grouping semantic that is not present here.

An example of an usage of parentheses blocks I would find more useful would 
be a shorter "calc()" notation, because this is something (1) ubiquitious 
and (2) that transforms multiple tokens into one "semantic" token (aka it 
creates a semantic group). I don't intend we should implement this proposal 
specifically, but that we should maybe leave the door open to something in 
this kind if it doesn't come at a cost. My point is there's no need to use a 
parentheses block here, so we should probably refrain from using it if 
there's no precedent of such usage in CSS.

It is not that I have a strong opinion on this, but since there's no current 
implementation of the spec, and since I think it could be more 
future-friendly to avoid using parentheses here, I wanted to see if it 
looked reasonable to others, too.

Received on Thursday, 26 June 2014 19:07:18 UTC