Tags: specs

Harnessing groupthink: fine-tuning CSS specifications | Clearleft

In order to thoroughly attend to every pertinent aspect of the spec, fantasai asked us each to read one sentence aloud to the group. At which point we were all asked whether we thought the sentence made sense, and to speak up if we didn’t understand any of it or if it wasn’t clear.

Rich documents the excellent and fascinating process used in a recent W3C workshop (though what he describes is the very opposite of groupthink, so don’t let the title mislead you):

I’d never come across the person-by-person, sentence-by-sentence approach before. I found it particularly effective as a way of engaging a group of people, ensuring collective understanding, and gathering structured feedback on a shared document.

Why we need CSS Speech - Tink - Léonie Watson

I was talking about this with Léonie just yesterday. I, for one, would love to have CSS speech support. You know who else would love it? Content designers!

In these days of voice interaction on every platform, there is a growing expectation that it should be possible to design that experience just like we can the visual experience. In the same way an organisation chooses a logo and colour palette for its website, it stands to reason that they may also choose a particular voice that represents their brand.

It’s wild that there’s no way to do this on the web.

W3C and WHATWG to work together to advance the open Web platform | W3C Blog

It’s Armistice Day in the world of HTML:

WHATWG maintains the HTML and DOM Living Standards.

W3C stops independent publishing of a designated list of specifications related to HTML and DOM and instead will work to take WHATWG Review Drafts to W3C Recommendations.

It feels like the loop is finally being closed on what I wrote about in the opening chapter of HTML5 For Web Designers back in 2010.

CSS exclusions with Queen Bey

This great post by Hui Jing is ostensibly about CSS shapes and exclusions, but there’s a much broader message too:

Build demos, and play around with anything that seems remotely interesting. Even if that feature is in early stages, or only supported by 1 browser. And then talk about it, or write and tweet about your experience, your use cases, what you liked or disliked about it.

We can shape the web to what we want it to be, but only if we get involved.

Upcoming changes to the CSS you need for variable fonts | Clagnut

Rich enumerates some changes in how you set up variable fonts. So if you’re pulling in a font that has weight as an axis, you can now add this to your @font-face rule:

font-weight: 1 999;

I’m already very excited about variable fonts—I’m going to be positively giddy by the time Ampersand rolls around (which, by the way, you should totally go to—it’s going to be sooo good!).

Inside CSS | Clearleft

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at a CSS Working Group meeting, Richard has the inside scoop.

The consensus building is vital. Representatives from all the major browsers were in the room, collaborating closely by proposing ideas and sharing implementations. But most fundamentally they were agreeing together what should go in the specifications, because what goes in the specs is what gets built and ends up in the hands of users.

Service worker meeting notes - JakeArchibald.com

Jake has written up the notes from the most recent gathering to discuss service workers. If you have any feedback on any of the proposed changes or additions to the spec, please add them. This proposal is the biggie:

We’re considering allowing the browser to run multiple concurrent instances of a service worker.

CSS Containment Module Level 3

A way of declaring the scope of an element’s layout and paint styles, which browsers can then use as a hint to optimise performance. It’s already shipping in Chrome and Opera.

CSS When/Else Rules

A really interesting proposal for more logic constructs in CSS: when/else conditions. At first glance, this looks like it would complicate the language (and one of the most powerful features of CSS is its simplicity), but when you dig a bit deeper you realise that there’s nothing new enabled by this extra syntax—it actually simplifies what’s already possible.

Surma.link – New ways to make your web app jank with Houdini – An introduction

This is a really good primer on all the pieces that make up the Houdini approach to CSS—giving authors access to low-level APIs for rendering.

As is often repeated here, it’s still early days and caution is advised, but it’s still a good idea to wrap your head around what’s coming down the standards pipe.

There’s even more specs in Houdini’s list of drafts, but the future of those is rather uncertain and they are not much more than a placeholder for an idea at this point. Examples include custom overflow behaviors, CSS syntax extension API, extension of native scroll behavior and similar ambitious things that allow you to screw up your web app even worse than ever before. Rejoice!

The elements of HTML

A complete list of HTML elements, past and present. They’re all hyperlinked to the relevant specs.

SKYLON Users’ Manual (PDF)

Tech specs for a spacecraft that doesn’t exist (yet).

Examples of blockquote metadata ❧ Oli.jp (@boblet)

Now this is how you make progress on getting changes made to a spec: by documenting real-world use cases.

Change Proposal for ISSUE-140 - WHATWG Wiki

An excellent zero-edit counter-proposal from Anne detailing why version numbers are unnecessary and undesirable for HTML.