[css-values] Define <'property-name'> notation to exclude listification

[fantasai]

The CSS property definition syntax has the handy <'property-name'> notation, which imports the entire value space of that property (aside from the CSS-wide keywords).

It's super useful, except a large number of places where we would use it (and did in CSS2) are places where we've listified the property value. This results in a lot of custom non-terminal grammar productions which are simply the entire value space of the property except without the listification, e.g. in css-backgrounds and css-animations.

I suggest we define <'property-name'> to just drop top-level listification. This would allow us to clean up our grammar productions, getting rid of these routine non-terminals and inlining a large number of simple productions into the property definition tables where they are easier to see and index.

[tabatkins]

I like this suggestion.

This would exclude things like <'background'>, which has a special last value and so isn't a simple listified value, right?

[dbaron]

I think this would let us avoid the following productions in css-animations: <single-animation-iteration-count>, <single-animation-direction>, <single-animation-play-state>, <single-animation-fill-mode>.

[css-meeting-bot]

The CSS Working Group just discussed Define <'property-name'> notation to exclude listification, and agreed to the following:

• RESOLVED: Redefine <'property-name'> to strip off top-level # multiplier

The full IRC log of that discussion

<dael> Topic: Define <'property-name'> notation to exclude listification
<dbaron> fantasai, does that handle stuff like repeating lists?
<dael> github: https://github.com//issues/3146
<fantasai> https://drafts.csswg.org/css-values-4/#combining-values
<fantasai> dbaron, yes
<dael> fantasai: This is an issue about our notation syntax.
<dael> fantasai: In CSS 2 we didn't have list valued properties of font-family. There was a convenience location where you could do name of property in quotes and a angle bracket and it ment use this whole property overthere.
<dael> fantasai: There's a ton of specs where in CSS2 we could use that notation. We have to creat non-termal terms that are identical to another property except they're not comma sep lists.
<dael> fantasai: Means property defintions are more obscure. When you look at table rather then listing color and then repeating there's a new type
<dael> fantasai: I think it would be nice to use this notation. We have to unlistify it in order to use it.
<dael> fantasai: I was thinking it might make sense to redefine as the property's value space but if it has a top level hash multiplier we remove it and take the value space within each item
<dael> fremy: Makes a lot of sense. Reasonable
<dael> fantasai: Notation change so it's editorial
<dael> florian: Makes sense to me as well
<dael> Rossen_: Other opinions?
<dael> Rossen_: Objections?
<tantek> +1
<fantasai> Redefine <'property-name'> to strip off top-level # multiplier
<dael> RESOLVED: Redefine <'property-name'> to strip off top-level # multiplier