CSS3 Needs Help.

Nicholas Zakas calls attention to the inconsistencies of the CSS3 spec and outlines a plan for cleaning it up.

With the recent support of CSS3 in browsers approaching an impressive level of consistency, you might be inclined to believe that CSS3 is a well-defined specification suitable for public consumption. You would be wrong on several counts. First and foremost, CSS3 is not a single specification but a collection of module specifications¹. The logic behind separating out various parts into individual specs is that it’s easier to move forward on a small group of functionality than to move along one giant specification (see HTML5). The idea certainly has merit but the actual implementation of the idea is beyond poor and many of the module specifications are in a serious state of disarray. I’ve tried bringing some of these concerns up on the public mailing list (www-style²) but have received little feedback or response, so I’m laying out my complaints and concerns here.