Bert is, of course, referring to symbolic constants, which many people seem to want to call “variables,” even though they’re really not. Anyway, he contends that the idea of constants in CSS is flawed, in large part because added complexity makes CSS more difficult to learn. I think this is kind of absurd. CSS is easy to learn. Really easy, in fact (I’ve said for years that the only hard part of HTML and CSS is browser bugs. Take browser bugs out of the equation, and CSS is child’s play). If symbolic constants are really so complicated that non-programers can’t grasp them (which they’re not), then they simply don’t have to use them.
But even more importantly than that: why is keeping CSS easy to learn so damned important? The only people that need to know CSS are web developers. This notion of keeping it simple so “regular people” can read and understand it is silly. Doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists don’t keep their specs and documentation simple so regular people can understand it, because regular people don’t need to understand it. Why does the W3 seem to place such an emphasis on making CSS palatable to everyone?
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