Intent to Remove: CSS Variables

1,056 views
Skip to first unread message

Alan Cutter

unread,
Feb 9, 2014, 6:15:30 PM2/9/14
to blink-dev

Primary eng (and PM) emails

alanc...@chromium.org

mikel...@chromium.org


Summary

Remove unfinished implementation of the CSS Variables spec.

http://www.w3.org/TR/css-variables-1/


Motivation

Our CSS Variables implementation in its current state needs a rewrite before it is ready to ship.

Our Bison CSS Parser is slated to be rewritten from scratch, this would result in another rewrite of the variables implementation.

If we were to ship CSS Variables with our current parser we would see little performance benefit over using a Javascript framework to accomplish the same thing.

Our priority for Blink this year is performance on mobile, CSS Variables will be revisited after we tackle our performance deficiencies.

Usage information from UseCounter

CSS Variables usage is not counted.


Compatibility Risk

CSS Variables is not shipped, removal poses minimal disruption to the web.

Firefox has an implementation in progress available on their Nightly channel.

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/12/css-variables-in-firefox-nightly/

Webkit has removed their implementation (which we inherited).

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114119


Row on feature dashboard

http://www.chromestatus.com/features/6401356696911872


Kenneth Rohde Christiansen

unread,
Feb 10, 2014, 5:23:45 AM2/10/14
to Alan Cutter, blink-dev
lgtm
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to blink-dev+...@chromium.org.



--
Kenneth Rohde Christiansen
Web Platform Architect, Intel Corporation.
Phone +45 4294 9458 ﹆﹆﹆

Tab Atkins Jr.

unread,
Feb 10, 2014, 6:19:08 PM2/10/14
to Alan Cutter, blink-dev
lgtm2

On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 3:15 PM, Alan Cutter <alanc...@google.com> wrote:
> Motivation
>
> Our CSS Variables implementation in its current state needs a rewrite before
> it is ready to ship.
>
> Our Bison CSS Parser is slated to be rewritten from scratch, this would
> result in another rewrite of the variables implementation.
>
> If we were to ship CSS Variables with our current parser we would see little
> performance benefit over using a Javascript framework to accomplish the same
> thing.
>
> Our priority for Blink this year is performance on mobile, CSS Variables
> will be revisited after we tackle our performance deficiencies.

To make it clearer to those watching at home, our current Variables
impl is pretty hacky, and kinda intrusive and slow (of the "everything
slows down when you use it" variety). We know roughly how to
implement it faster, but doing it right depends on some other rewrites
we intend on doing, so we'll re-add this later when they're done.

This is definitely not a judgement on the feature itself.

~TJ

Elliott Sprehn

unread,
Feb 10, 2014, 6:22:32 PM2/10/14
to Tab Atkins Jr., Alan Cutter, blink-dev
+1, lgtm.

Ojan Vafai

unread,
Feb 10, 2014, 6:29:59 PM2/10/14
to Elliott Sprehn, Tab Atkins Jr., Alan Cutter, blink-dev
lgtm

:(

+1 to not being a judgment on the feature itself.

Alex Russell

unread,
Feb 10, 2014, 7:21:41 PM2/10/14
to Ojan Vafai, Elliott Sprehn, Tab Atkins Jr., Alan Cutter, blink-dev
Same. Sad to see this delayed, but if this speeds it along, so be it.


Dimitri Glazkov

unread,
Feb 11, 2014, 12:01:31 PM2/11/14
to Alex Russell, Ojan Vafai, Elliott Sprehn, Tab Atkins Jr., Alan Cutter, blink-dev
LGTM3. It's not good bye. It's see you later.

TAMURA, Kent

unread,
Feb 12, 2014, 12:16:55 AM2/12/14
to Alan Cutter, blink-dev
lgtm with sadness.

--
TAMURA Kent
Software Engineer, Google


Daniel

unread,
Nov 17, 2014, 3:04:21 PM11/17/14
to blin...@chromium.org, alanc...@google.com
Any update on if this feature is being worked on or is it still on hold for the originally stated reasons?

Thanks,
Dan

Alan Cutter

unread,
Nov 17, 2014, 4:40:34 PM11/17/14
to Daniel, blin...@chromium.org
This feature is still on hold pending replacing the Bison parser. See meta tracking bug for the parser refactor: crbug.com/330389

Mike Sherov

unread,
Jun 10, 2015, 8:41:37 AM6/10/15
to blin...@chromium.org
Now that the new parser has landed (amazing job there, by the way), where do we stand on reimplementing CSS variables?

Douglas Stockwell

unread,
Jun 10, 2015, 8:48:56 AM6/10/15
to Mike Sherov, blin...@chromium.org
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages