[csswg-drafts] [css-grid] grammar of grid-row-start and friends is ugly and harms value space for line names

therealglazou has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts:

== [css-grid] grammar of grid-row-start and friends is ugly and harms value space for line names ==
Ref: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-grid/#line-placement

I am currently implementing editing support for CSS grids in BlueGriffon and I must say the "span" keyword that can appear in the values of grid-row-start, grid-column-start, grid-row-end and grid-column-end is very ugly, and painful in terms of UX in a content editor. It also requires the following provision in the prose:

>In all the above productions, the <custom-ident> additionally excludes the keyword span.

and given the richness of the CSS grammar, I am surprised we ended up with such a restriction of the value space of line names.
Can't we do better that, and instead of

> grid-row-start: span 3 myline

have (that's only an example, many other options are possible)

> grid-row-start: (3 myline)

I think it's not only cosmetic. The parser for these properties' values will be a bit simpler, line names will suffer no restriction, and my content editor will not have to exclude one single word without explanation. Even with an explanation, the exclusion of "span" just for the grammar of these properties seems a failure, IMHO.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/1137 using your GitHub account

Received on Tuesday, 28 March 2017 15:37:50 UTC