> Moving work from JS to the browser’s native, polished, tested implementation with optimized performance is the right thing to do.

Of course, not disagreeing with that. It is just done in a way that is complex and cumbersome IMO. CSS is often handled by people with very little programming experience as well. I have worked for companies which gave me HTML templates, and CSS files, and my job as the developer was basically do add dynamic behavior by fetching stuff from their DB and looping over some data here and there to fill out lists/tables with actual content. To me that was very pleasant; but the guy handing me the CSS and HTML templates, had zero programming experience.

I think webdesign already is a copy-n-paste bonanza, where people find something they like, and copy it; if it gets very complicated as well. Developers are often last resort in terms of finding out why something does not work, and I fear complicated CSS after a few rounds of copy-n-paste is going painful to unwrap.

Your comment is quite unfair to the author, who explained every part of the complicated CSS ruleset. It's not a copy-paste, for sure.

I think you misunderstood. Never meant the author of the article copy-n-pasted anything. Not the commenter that I "commented" on either. CSS had grown into something a bit too complex for its own good.

kelnos> This seems like a bit much. More than a bit much.

I just said that web-design, either done by programmers with zero design experience, or by designers with zero programming experience lends itself towards copy-n-paste (from different resources online). I.e. many people copy-n-paste stuff they don't really know much about in order to make their website look decent. If the underlying technology is complex and difficult to understand, this can lead to an unholy mess that (most likely) developers will have to unwrap.

Are you seriously suggesting that the primary motivation for this feature to be added to CSS is to make life harder for new browser engines?

The thought had crossed my mind, yes. Do you think Google does anything from the kindness of their hearts, without considering Chrome's position? It's one of their most valuable assets.

It's needlessly conspiratorial to ascribe intention here, especially when the Servo community have already expressed interest in supporting upcoming (difficult!) standards like CSSOM