[whatwg] The src-N proposal

[Tim Kadlec]

On Nov 17, 2013 7:16 AM, "Ryosuke Niwa" <rniwa at apple.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 17, 2013, at 4:49 AM, Timothy Hatcher <timothy at apple.com> wrote:
>
> > On Nov 16, 2013, at 11:30 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >
> >> This entire discussion, for months, has been entirely about syntax.  I
> >> don't think I've seen a single person talk about semantics, nor do I
> >> think it would make much sense to do so.
> >
> > Maybe semantics is the wrong word. I feel (and others agreed on
webkit-dev) that the "srcset" term better represents this and syntactically
using a delimiter instead of multiple attributes is more tenable.
> >
> >> The aesthetic concerns *are* personal, as it's an opinion about
> >> whether you think it looks good and is understandable or not.  Some
> >> people like it, some people don't.  It's not a big deal.
> >
> > It is a big deal. Humans need to use this for years to come. Settling
on something that is polarizing is a big deal.
>
> Without starting a debate on what semantics or aesthetics mean, syntax is
a big deal.  A bad syntax can totally kill a feature.

Completely agree. For example, this is why authors opposed srcset for
anything beyond switching images based on resolution—the authors have been
quite vocal about the limitations of the syntax.

At this point, however, src-N appears to have the most support from authors
since the picture element and has far more interest from implementors,
aside from WebKit.

This doesn't necessarily mean that it should be shipped as is, but
considering it's easily the closest thing to a consensus we've had between
the two groups I think the most constructive thing to do is not to scrap it
and start all over but to work with it a bit and see how to improve on the
outstanding concerns.

- Tim