[css-syntax] keeping the indent level under control in modern CSS with `@layer`, `@scope`, nesting, ...

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
20/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
css
Domain
frontend, web-dev

Research direction

No source files, tests, or entry points are mentioned. Start by reviewing the CSSWG discussion and the examples of nested @layer, @scope, nesting, and related at-rules. Done would require a concrete, agreed syntax proposal that improves readability and a clear path for specification work.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

css-syntax-3

Example :

@layer components {
	@scope (.my-component) to (.child-component-slot > *) {
		.my-component {
			color: cyan;
			padding: 0.5rem;

			&:hover {
				color: blue;
			}

			@media (min-width: 768px) {
				padding: 1rem;
			}
		}
	}
}

This is starting to look a bit like the callback hell from JS :

getBeef("foo", (rawBeef) => {
	sliceBeef(rawBeef, (slicedBeef) => {
		cookBeef(slicedBeef, (cookedBeef) => {
			serveBeef(cookedBeef, (servedBeef) => {
				console.log(servedBeef);
			});
		});
	});
});

Some of this can be externalized by adding bits of it to @import :

@import "my-component.css" layer(components);

But this isn't always possible or good practice for maintainable code.
Often the reason for wrapping code in an at-rule is tightly coupled with the code that is wrapped.

Using nesting is a choice and authors can choose not to nest.

@when does not help here because it wasn't designed for @layer, @scope, @container, ...
Personally I don't think @when should be shipped at all because it doesn't solve the issue fully. Maybe I am wrong here and @when could be used for all at rules?

The underlying issue is that at-rules can only be "combined" or "stacked" by nesting them. With the introduction of new at-rules and nested CSS source code will only become more heavily nested and less readable.

I don't have a concreet proposal for a syntax that could help here.
I do however think it is something that should be explored.

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