Deprecate or replace with postcss-color-mod-function

[jonathantneal]

Are there any developers interested in continuing this project, or should we deprecate it in favor of https://www.npmjs.com/package/postcss-color-mod-function ?

Note that, regardless of the name, the entire color-mod() function concept is deprecated.

[standy]

Any update on this?

[jonathantneal]

I never know if the lack of response means a lack of interest, or that any other interested parties are just busy, or if I just did a bad job explaining the issue.

[am]

@jonathantneal I can understand your issue, and share the interest in the response.

[silvenon]

I'm a confused, why would this plugin be deprecated in favor of a deprecated concept? In any case, I like this plugin and would like to help maintain it, especially to solve #49.

[jeonghoheo]

I do not want the color-mod to disappear
color-mod is really useful!

[trezy]

@jonathantneal Are you still looking for somebody to take over supporting this project? If so, I'd be happy to dig in. I'm about to fork it to see if I can either figure out why an issue is happening or fix it if I have found a bug.

[jonathantneal]

This is great news. If we can get some smaller PRs, I will review and hand out maintainer status that way. Then after I can review a few npm publishes, I can hand over access there, too. I hope you don’t mind the gated philosophy; we’ve seen what happens we hand out access too easily and all the sudden bitcoin miners are distributed across npm.

[jonathantneal]

A smaller PR was brought in and released as 4.1.0.

[EasterPeanut]

@jonathantneal I don't really understand the readme. Are both color() and color-mod() deprecated?

[Paul-Hebert]

I'm also curious about this. Is the CSS Color Module Level 4 spec introducing a different syntax or tool to solve the same problem? Or has the concept of color manipulation in CSS been removed from the spec completely?

[grebaldi]

Appearently it has been removed here: w3c/csswg-drafts@034b063

The commit message states:

when we add it back it will have different syntax.

So, it's going to be added again, but most likely in a way that will cause a breaking change in the postcss-color-mod-function plugin in order to stay compatible.

[svgeesus]

It will have a different syntax, yes (coincidentally we are discussing that syntax at today's CSS Working Group meeting)

[jonathantneal]

@EasterPeanut, it’s complicated, but yes, both the color() or color-mod() spec are deprecated.

First, the CSS function named color() was renamed to color-mod(), while another completely different function named color() was implemented in a web browser. When I heard about this change, I brought it to the attention of the folks who managed this project. Nothing happened, I made the color-mod() plugin, put it into PostCSS Preset Env, and then fast forward a few years and now I manage this project.

This is why the README says “color() was changed to color-mod().”

Second, the function named color-mod() was deprecated and removed because it had a “bad” syntax and no one had time to properly work on it. When I said “the entire color-mod() function concept” I could have been more precise and said “the entire color-mod() function syntax”. I was excited to learn the idea was being revisited.

But this is why the README says “color-mod() has been removed from Color Module Level 4 specification.”

---

@Paul-Hebert, by removing the color-mod() spec then yes, technically “the concept of color manipulation in CSS” was “removed from the spec completely”, but that’s not the same as saying the concept is a bad idea. The spec being removed meant the syntax was bad, and there was no longer a spec to address that concept.

---

Now, since my original request, I have received 2 maintenance PRs and neither contributor stuck around. I’ll talk with other PostCSS team members to see what we should do with this repo.

[Paul-Hebert]

Cool, thanks for the additional info, @grebaldi , @svgeesus , @jonathantneal !

[svgeesus]

In case anyone is interested, minutes of the 5 June CSS WG meeting on color modification functions