[css-gaps-1] Naming bi-directional gap decoration shorthand

[kbabbitt]

Gaps 1 defines the gap-rule property as a shorthand which sets widths, styles, and colors in both the row and column directions.

In the TAG review thread for CSS Gap Decorations, @LeaVerou asked:

Why gap-rule and not just rule which would be consistent with the row-gap/column-gap/gap shorthand?

To which I responded:

I was a little concerned about overloading a general term like "rule" in case we at some point discover some other place we want to paint rules, and to avoid confusion between a CSS rule and the CSS rule property.

I wanted to open a discussion to get more opinions from the WG about this. What do folks think?

[css-meeting-bot]

The CSS Working Group just discussed [css-gaps-1] Naming bi-directional gap decoration shorthand, and agreed to the following:

• RESOLVED: rename gap-rule to 'rule'

The full IRC log of that discussion

<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: this came up in TAG review for gap decos
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: there's a gap-rule shorthand that sets width/style/color for both directions
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: named it gap-rule for a few reasons
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: first, nervous about taking rule-* for future
<lea> q+
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: also avoiding confusion between the "rule" properties and CSS rules
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: just wanted some opinions
<TabAtkins> lea: this is what we do for gap - row-gap/column-gap, and gap
<TabAtkins> lea: so suggested doing the same and getting just 'rule'
<TabAtkins> lea: but you raise valid points
<TabAtkins> astearns: i'm usually very concerned about consistency, but not concerned in this case. i do like the guarding considerations.
<TabAtkins> TabAtkins: same
<TabAtkins> TabAtkins: so proposed resolution is stick with gap-rule?
<TabAtkins> fantasai: feels like it should be a longhand of 'gap' then, so i'm leanign the other way
<TabAtkins> kbabbitt: could it be? could get ambiguous, a length could be the gap size or the rule size
<TabAtkins> grule
<TabAtkins> florian: the confusion between decorative and syntactic rules is unlikely to anywhere besides these meetings, so it's fine
<TabAtkins> florian: and context is different enough anyway, not very confusing
<TabAtkins> fantasai: oh so i'm not suggesting `gap` be a shorthand that includes gap-rule, i suggest just doing 'rule'
<TabAtkins> astearns: so proposed resolution, rename gap-rule to 'rule'
<TabAtkins> RESOLVED: rename gap-rule to 'rule'

[kbabbitt]

One note: Currently, the spec also has gap-rule-width, gap-rule-style, and gap-rule-color shorthands. For consistency I would interpret the WG resolution as intended to apply to these shorthands as well, i.e. rename them to rule-width, rule-style, and rule-color respectively. If there are concerns with this, please leave a note.

edit: and gap-rule break, gap-rule-outset