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CSS2.2 and the 2007 CSS Snapshot

There was a lot of discussion earlier this year around Andy Budd’s proposal for a CSS2.2. The basic premise was that the Web needs a halfway point between CSS2 and The Complete CSS3 that is taking forever, so that the key features web developers need now can happen sooner. The structure of CSS3 is actually set up so that this can happen, but the CSS Working Group has realized that this is far from obvious to anyone outside the working group. So we’ve decided to publish a CSS2.2.

Except we’re not going to call it CSS2.2, because to the Working Group CSS2.2 means something completely different. (It means CSS Level 2 Revision 2, which, really, isn’t something anybody needs right now.) We’re also not going publish just one “CSS2.2”, but many—hopefully one a year. The first one is the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007. Our goal in publishing this document is to explain the state of CSS, demonstrate the modular nature of CSS3, and make many of the tacit recommendations of the CSS Working Group explicit. This snapshot defines, as Markus puts it, The Book of CSS: it’s the introduction and table of contents for everything that would be part of the 2007 Edition of Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Spec.

If you’re interested in the development of the CSS specs, read the Snapshot. It’s very short (4 pages printed), and mostly explanation rather than technical definition. There’s nothing new or terribly exciting in it (expect more in 2008), but I hope this document makes it easier for people to understand the structure and development of CSS.

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