Summary of calc serialization discussion

Hey all,

Here’s my stripped-down analysis of what’s been discussed so far:

A. There is a benefit (for authors and developers) to simplifying the specified value of calc for the Typed OM.

B. There is a benefit (for debuggers and editors) for retaining the actual string in the specified value.

C. Browsers currently do not agree on what to do with specified calc() values. There is a benefit to interoperability, but there has been no evidence presented that authors care about the current differences.

Here are some options I see.

1. Solving for A and C, we define serialization rules as proposed two weeks ago, and ask browsers to converge in how their tools represent specified values. This makes things worse for B

2. Solving for B and C, we stick to specified values as the specified strings, and ask browsers to converge on that. This makes things worse for A.

3. Solving for A alone, we could define that the Typed OM uses computed value simplifications for its representation of specified calc() values, and leave things as they are with C for now.

Given the conversation so far, it seems to me that there would be objections to either 1 or 2. Is 3 an acceptable compromise?


Thanks,

Alan