[whatwg] Features for responsive Web design

[Tab Atkins Jr.]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 5:58 AM, Matthew Wilcox <mail at matthewwilcox.com> wrote:
> Also, srcset does not abstract the control points away from the image
> itself. I have already been over why this is a problem and
> future-unfriendly. Breakpoints are based on a when a *design* becomes
> visually broken, not on the width of a device. So, when a design
> changes, so will the response breakpoints, and that would mean having
> to revisit and edit every image that's had srcset applied - unless I
> am missing something (which given the last day or two, I may well be).

You're right that changing your breakpoints requires changing all the
@srcset declarations.  An unfortunate aspect of our inability to
abstract away some of the functionality without breaking some of the
features (like being preloader-friendly).

However, something similar to your idea certainly seems possible to
use in an extention of the syntax.  Rather than specifying a w/h
component, give a 'case' component that refers to a breakpoint defined
elsewhere.  This could even potentially extend into url-templating.

This seems like a good bit of complexity for now, though.  I'd prefer
to iterate on the current proposal, keeping this kind of thing in
mind.  In particular, adding something like url-templating would
*massively* blow up the complexity of the feature, and delay its
implementation.

~TJ