• 200712 Apr

    Andy Budd gave a talk at this year’s Highland Fling web conference on the subject The Future of CSS (direct PDF download, 1.3MB).

    Readers of this site will be familiar with most of the content (although it’s still worth reading), but two things stood out for me:

    First, the use of simple calculations; I’ve thought for a long time that this would be useful, and I’m really glad that it’s being considered. Here’s an example:

    #mainContent {
    width: calc(100% - 200px)
    }

    Second, the call for a CSS2.2. As he says:

    [There are] some really interesting things in CSS3. Many of them are fairly niche, with little demand. Many browsers already support the more interesting features of CSS3; Why not have an intermediary step covering the stuff people want?

    I hadn’t considered it before, but it makes sense. Most browsers now support a small range of simple CSS3 features, so why not partition those off to an intermediate recommendation while the other, more complex features are worked on?

    You can skip to the end and leave a response.


  • Comments

    • 01.

      In my opinion there is no need for CSS 2.2 because CSS 3 has pretty independent modular structure…

    • 02.

      I don’t care if it’s put in CSS2.2 or 3, but good god, yes! Give us calc() and other stuff like that.

    • 03.

      Oh that would make life so much simpler especially for width adjustments for different layouts and in diff browsers. I am all for it as long as CSS3 doesnt get anymore delayed than it already is.

    • 04.

      I think that var are a lot more needed than calc, althought it’ll be nice too.

      Or, perhaps, I’m the only one who want that ?

    • 05.

      Cálculo de valores mediante CSS…

      Un ejemplo (futuro) para asignar a un ancho el resultado de un cálculo entre unidades fijas y relativas…

    • 06.

      Wouldn’t it be a better idea to have 2.1 shipped and implemented before we start talking about 2.2? :)

    • 07.

      @Robin: That’s not funny ;)

      Mee too wants de calculations! That would allow beautiful scaling designs that would still be pixel perfect at every resolution!

    • 08.

      CSS2.1 was designed to provide browser manufactures (and to a lesser extent, web developers) a stable snapshot of current browser support for CSS2. The thing is, the spec is now around 5 years old, and browsers have move on significantly since then. I agree that CSS2.1 should be finished first, but only as a matter of completeness.

      The modular nature of CSS3 is great. However that doesn’t change the fact that, despite a belief that it would be finished in late 1999, it’s still in development 7 years later and looking no closer to being finished. Their are many reasons development is taking so long, but one of the big reasons is internationalisation. So despite being broken down into modules, the level of detail needed to solve many internationalization issues is impeding a lot of the more useful stuff that has already been designed and even implemented by some forward thinking browsers.

      My suggestion for CSS2.2 doesn’t prevent CSS3 from being developed, although it may slow things down a little. However it would give us designers and developers, as well as the browser manufacturers, the ability to start implementing all the cool CSS3 features we badly want, without having to wait another couple of years for the working group to argue the mechanisms of Tibetan hyphenation. Something I imagine less people are desperate for.

    • 09.

      I’ve been wanting this for awhile. I had doing padding or margin adjustments and then having to remember all the other things that have to be adjusted afterwards with those changes.

    • 10.

      I’d also like variables in CSS; imagine:

      $red { #f00; }

      strong { color: $red; border-color: $red; }

    • 11.

      […] CSS3 . info – Everything you need to know about CSS3 CSS calculations (tags: css2 css calc) […]

    • 12.

      agreed. variables would be outstanding

    • 13.

      Variables are easily accomplished server-side.

    • 14.

      Wow, I love the idea of a calc() for css.

    • 15.

      calc() would be absolutely brilliant! I’ve been wanting that for ages.

      Variables (or constants probably) would also be nice, but not just for storing colour-values but entire layouts.

      $cool-box {
      border: 1px solid red;
      background: green;
      padding: 10px;
      }
      $cool-box > h2:first-child {
      margin: -10px -10px 10px -10px;
      padding: 10px;
      border-bottom: 1px solid red;
      }

      #recent-articles = $cool-box;

      Something like that perhaps…

    • 16.

      calc() would be great. How many times I already wanted to use something similar. The usage of variables also has a lot of potential but can be solved server side for the moment.

    • 17.

      […] we mentioned Andy’s call for a new intermediary version of CSS, which includes all the most commonly implemented features of CSS3. This led to a fair bit of […]

    • 18.

      It would be much easier to create liquid layouts with calc.

    • 19.

       Once upon a time, I sent out an email suggesting a feature like this, only to find out that it was already being considered. I can’t wait for this.

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