Proposal: make a consistent "list" syntax in CSS, and list of lists syntax in CSS.
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Description
In this post that I wrote up a little while back, I talked about "The Many Failed Attempts at Lists-of-Lists Syntax in CSS". Right now, CSS is scattered with various attempts to syntactically define "lists-of-lists" syntax, and the recent CSS Functions and Mixins module is currently on-track to introduce another lists-in-lists syntax attempt, which, via the use of curly-braces, rolls back previous understanding of list syntax, where curly braces, by convention, only held declaration lists.
I don't have a specific proposal for what lists-of-lists syntax should look like; I just think it's worth CSSWG exploring a single CSS syntax to represent it, and to:
- use a consistent list syntax and lists-of-lists syntax moving forward, and
- backporting, as needed, list syntax and lists-of-lists syntax to previous lists-of-lists syntax attempts, for consistency
If I had a preference, it would be:
- curly braces only hold declaration lists, or
- curly braces are used everywhere there are lists-of-lists, or
- a previous lists-of-lists syntax is used for new proposals, or
- a new lists-of-lists syntax is applied that is used for new proposals and backported to previous syntax
In other words, my preference for CSS would just be consistency.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the linked post and the current CSS Functions and Mixins module discussion. Compare the existing list and lists-of-lists syntax conventions described there, then summarize possible consistency directions for CSSWG review. Done means the working group has selected or clearly documented a consistent syntax direction and its compatibility implications.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- css
- Domain
- frontend, web-dev
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 28/100