Re: Extended shorthand for hex colours

On Thu, 15 Jan 2015 08:59:11 +0100, Ryan Williams  
<email@ryanwilliams.co.uk> wrote:

> Hexadecimal notation is commonly used for defining colours in CSS, but  
> the shorthand is lacking. Right now we can use #CCC which would be  
> expanded to #CCCCCC, but that's pretty much it.
>
> Wouldn't it be nice if we built upon the principles of the existing  
> shorthand -- repeating the defined characters -- to provide more options?
>
> For example:
>
> 1. #C expands to #CCCCCC
> 2. #C3 expands to #C3C3C3

I think this is just confusing. #abc is expanded to #aabbcc, not #abcabc.  
With your proposal you can only express grays, which is not particularly  
useful, and it is not clear from the syntax what it means. Also, it might  
not be Web-compatible to support 1-2 character hex colors. I think it is  
more useful to say that the above are invalid as they are probably typos,  
so that a validator can point out the error.

> 3. #CCC expands to #CCCCCC
>
> These two extra shorthand formats would allow a lot of hex colours to be  
> typed and/or transmitted across networks more efficiently.

Just use gzip.

> I don't think it'd make sense to allow for four- or five-character  
> shorthand, as the defined characters could not be repeated in full.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> --
> Ryan Williams


-- 
Simon Pieters
Opera Software

Received on Thursday, 22 January 2015 14:28:34 UTC