52948 - Need to support CSS3 system colors

Status: NEW

(Core :: CSS Parsing and Computation, enhancement, P4)

Description

[Decklin Foster]

CSS3 defines a much wider selection of system colors (see URL above.) I need a
few of these for a skin, so I implemented them. Unfortunately, I only use
Linux/Gtk so I don't want to get everything wrong on Mac, Win etc.

Also, many of the new CSS3 colors are build by adding a prefix to a list of base
colors. I'm unsure as to whether we just want to list all the possible
combinations or come up with something smarter.

The patch I'm attatching now only adds support for those color names I really
need. However, if I can get some guidance and some able Mac/Win hackers for the
platform-specific stuff, I can go ahead and work on adding more. The current
list of added colors is:

- hoverbutton
- activebutton
- field

Comment 1

[Decklin Foster]

Attachment: initial patch (this is a bit rough)

Comment 2

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

CSS3 is still in a state of flux and we should not implement it until it has
got to the Candidate Recommendation stage. In particular I am aware of many
parts of the CSS3 UI draft (which these colours come from) which are in hot
debate at the moment.

Comment 3

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Removing 'patch' since that keyword means the bug is fixed and simply awaiting
a checkin, whereas the patch attached is merely an example of the work required.

Comment 4

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-5, no longer working on Mozilla)]

If this is needed for UI work, it would be reasonable to do this **if** the 
added values were recognized as -moz-value instead.

Comment 5

[Decklin Foster]

That was actually how I originally wrote it. Someone later pointed me to the
CSS3 page but I wasn't aware of the debate surrounding it. I'll attach another
patch which uses -moz-activebutton, etc. The comments in the patch will also
point out that the spec is not finalized.

Comment 6

[Decklin Foster]

Attachment: use -moz- prefix

Comment 7

[Pierre Saslawsky]

This bug is rightfully marked "future" because we can no longer take the time to 
complete the implementation on all the platforms.

Decklin, I'm wary about uses of system colors or system fonts if you can't test 
on all 3 platforms. It may result in skins that look good on a platform and not 
the other ones. You may have to stick to the CSS2 definitions and find a UI that 
looks good without being similar to the native UI.

Thanks for the patch. We'll certainly use it and complete it after we ship :-(.

Note: If you can get hold of a Mac and a Windows machine, complete the work, and 
make sure the skin is fine everywhere, I'll support you to get a review and an 
approval from [e-mail].

Comment 8

[Decklin Foster]

The fix for bug 53723 was just checked into the trunk, which used part of this
patch. I'm just resyncing it so that it will apply to the current tree.

Stuff that needs help is marked with FIXME. It's pretty simple: compile on
win/mac, see if the colors match the UI, and if not tell me what they should be.
I'll make a xul testcase tomorrow.

Comment 9

[Decklin Foster]

Attachment: updated patch

Comment 10

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-5, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Assigning pierre's remaining Style System-related bugs to myself.

Comment 11

[Eric Hodel]

Updated URL.

CSS3 color is now a CR, can we drop the -moz- sometime soon?

Comment 12

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

yes, we could drop them now if the relevant keywords are in CR and we've
implemented them as per the spec. File a new bug on this please.

Comment 13

[Anne (:annevk)]

Where can I find that 'new' bug?

Comment 14

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

I don't think anyone filed it.

Comment 15

[Gérard Talbot]

(In reply to comment #11)
"The CSS2 System Color values have been deprecated in favor of the CSS3 UI
'appearance' property for specifying the complete look [including colors] of
user interface related elements."
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/#css-system

and CSS3 Basic User Interface Module became a CR yesterday! As far as I
understand this (I'm sorry in advance if I'm totally wrong here), there never
were CSS3 system colors listed in that CSS3 color module CR of 2003-05-14: the
CSS2 system colors are listed with a bold "Deprecated" word.
CSS2.1 confirms this:
"18.2 CSS2 System Colors
Note. The CSS2 System Colors are deprecated in the CSS3 Color Module.
"
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/ui.html#system-colors

So, the "system colors" in CSS3 are defined (along with font and cursor style
info) when using the CSS3 apparance property when using one of the keywords in
the list at this precise url:

http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-ui/#appearance-val

I am not sure how -moz-hoverbutton and -moz-activebutton (push-button in that
list, maybe?) can be translated into from looking at that list. All 3 attached
patches in this bugfile were done many months before there were actually an
according CR of the relevant module.

Comment 16

[Anne (:annevk)]

Please don't add comments about 'css3-ui' into this bug. Although 'css3-color'
does point towards it, it isn't relevant.

What we want to do here is address comment 12 by fixing bug 231790 and after
that this bug probably ends up being fixed by its dependecy.

So although the W3C deprecates them Mozilla is still going to support them.

Comment 17

[Gérard Talbot]

(In reply to comment #16)
> Please don't add comments about 'css3-ui' into this bug.

My only comment into this bug was closely related to a recent happening at the
W3C and related-to-this-bug CSS3 CRs. I assumed I was trying to clarify a spec
issue, you see, regarding and related to this bugfile.

 Although 'css3-color'
> does point towards it, it isn't relevant.
> 

System colors are now defined along with font and cursor info when choosing from
a list of keywords (5.1. Appearance values): that's how I read+understood the spec.

> What we want to do here is address comment 12 by fixing bug 231790 and after
> that this bug probably ends up being fixed by its dependecy.
> 

Bug 231790 says "Implement CSS3 system colors per specification" while this bug
says "Need to support CSS3 system colors". Where/how have I missed something
here? IMHO, there is either at least a DUPLICATE here or an INVALID bugfile. As
worded, I think bug 231790 was a DUPLICATE and is now INVALID.

> So although the W3C deprecates them 

Thank you for confirming my interpretation of the spec issue here.

> Mozilla is still going to support them.

Maybe changes in fields like Component, URL, Summary, Keywords, etc.. would be
appropriate then since so-called CSS3 system colors aren't part of the CSS3
color module anymore. How about moz extensions?

What I don't understand is why Mozilla would want to implement the system colors
as defined in CSS2 and CSS2.1 when all this will most likely be deprecated (they
are deprecated right now in current CSS3 CRs modules) when related CSS3 modules
will be final? Why not wait? 

Comment 18

[Anne (:annevk)]

(In reply to comment #17)
> (In reply to comment #16)
> > Please don't add comments about 'css3-ui' into this bug.
> 
> My only comment into this bug was closely related to a recent happening at the
> W3C and related-to-this-bug CSS3 CRs. I assumed I was trying to clarify a spec
> issue, you see, regarding and related to this bugfile.

Like I said, 'css3-ui' is /not/ related to this bug.

> > Although 'css3-color' does point towards it, it isn't relevant.
> 
> System colors are now defined along with font and cursor info when choosing
> from a list of keywords (5.1. Appearance values): that's how I read+understood
> the spec.

This is incorrect, like I said. System colors are /still/ part of the CSS3 color
module. Besides that, there is /also/ a CSS3 UI module which defines
'appearance', which is a property that is unrelated to this bug.

> > What we want to do here is address comment 12 by fixing bug 231790 and after
> > that this bug probably ends up being fixed by its dependecy.
> 
> Bug 231790 says "Implement CSS3 system colors per specification" while this
> bug says "Need to support CSS3 system colors". Where/how have I missed 
> something here? 

You missed comment 12 definitely. The current implementation of system colors is
probably not consistent with the CSS3 color module specification and that's why
there was need for the separate bug. Please read carefully and completely.

> IMHO, there is either at least a DUPLICATE here or an INVALID bugfile. As
> worded, I think bug 231790 was a DUPLICATE and is now INVALID.

It matters what QA and developers think.

> > So although the W3C deprecates them 
> 
> Thank you for confirming my interpretation of the spec issue here.

Well, maybe you understanded a part, you didn't understand what deprecates means.

> > Mozilla is still going to support them.
> 
> Maybe changes in fields like Component, URL, Summary, Keywords, etc.. would be
> appropriate then since so-called CSS3 system colors aren't part of the CSS3
> color module anymore. How about moz extensions?

This is exactly what I mean, they are _still_ part of the specification, they
are not _dropped_ like you assume.

> What I don't understand is why Mozilla would want to implement the system
> colors as defined in CSS2 and CSS2.1 when all this will most likely be
> deprecated (they are deprecated right now in current CSS3 CRs modules) when
> related CSS3 modules will be final? Why not wait? 

Deprecations doesn't mean you may not implement it, please read the
specifications carefully before you add comments about it in Bugzilla.

For the people that are using Mozilla and for related applications that rely on
Mozilla supporting this part of the specification is important and fixing our
issues in the separate bug is important as well. Send me a private mail if it is
still unclear, since adding comments to this bug is useless and will only slow
down the progress.