Re: [css-syntax]The emperor isn't naked, but he's wearing his underpants on his head

On Fri, 4 Nov 2016 18:49:37 +0000, you wrote:

>> Thus instead of "margin:auto" there would be a
>> "center" attribute because any graphic designer knows what
>> "center" means  while "margin:auto" is a total mystery to anyone
>> who hasn't looked it up and even to some who have.
>
>"center" it's not clear, it could be horizontal centering, vertical centering,
>or both. It could be relatively to the containing block, the document,
>the viewport, or whatever. It could take the element out-of-flow or not.
>Centering something can mean much different things to different people.
>So saying that there should be a `center` property which would simply
>center is too naive in my opinion.

It's too naive in your opinion because you've never earned your
living as a graphic designer.   To a designer, "center" means
"horizontally". 

>
>Maybe it's true that the current model teaches us things we could have
>learned in no other way. But that's necessary if we want CSS to be able
>to do complicated things.

That's because you're looking at it from a programmer's point of
view.   The software should do what software does best, and let
the artist get on with doing art.   The current complexity of CSS
interferes with that purpose.

>
>So in general I think the CSS WG is doing a good job.

Seen as people creating software, sure,  no argument.  Seen as
people creating tools that support designers applying artistic
principles to enhance communication, they're doing the best they
can, but they're in over their heads just as a group of
commercial artists would be if they were tasked with developing a
general-purpose computer language and set of dev tools.   

Jerome Bruner determined, and it's widely accepted now as an
accurate rule of thumb, that it takes about 10 years of training
and experience to become an expert in some field, and that if it
takes longer than that, the field splits.    People whose
training involved courses such as "Mathematical Foundations",
"Introduction to Algorithm Design", and "Finite-State Automata"
are not well-prepared to understand the psychophysical impact of
color choices, the ways in which typeface choices influence
emotions, or how cognition works.  They are just two completely
different sets of core competencies.  It's unfortunate that so
few engineers understand that.

Received on Monday, 7 November 2016 11:47:04 UTC