[whatwg] So if media-queries aren't for determining the media to be used what are they for?

[Tab Atkins Jr.]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 5:42 AM, Odin Hørthe Omdal <odinho at opera.com> wrote:
> Tim Kadlec <tim at timkadlec.com> wrote:
>>
>> The lack of em support is a concern though I understand the complications
>> you have brought up.
>>
>> Using ems for media queries (which in turn dictate layout which in turn
>> dictates the image I want to load) is increasingly looking like a much wiser
>> decision than using pixels. A perfect example are devices such as the Kindle
>> Touch which have a much higher default font size. A real world example, and
>> case study, can be found here:
>> http://blog.cloudfour.com/the-ems-have-it-proportional-media-queries-ftw/
>
> I don't think it is fit for this round of spec. It is in direct conflict
> with preloading/prefetching. It's a different model and requires a
> different fix.

Not really.  Media Queries allows 'em' to be used; it's just relative
to the initial font size (which is specified by the browser, not CSS),
rather than the font-size of any particular element.  Since the w/h
components of @srcset are basically MQs, it should work similarly.

~TJ