[selectors-4] Rename :nth-column to :nth-col

[fantasai]

There was a concern raised (by dbaron I think, though I'm not sure) that if we introduced a ::column pseudo-element for multicol, it would be very confusing if we also have :nth-column() which has nothing to do with multicol. We don't use abbreviations much in CSS syntax, but table markup in HTML already uses col as an abbreviation in many places (the <col> and <colgroup> elements, values of the scope attribute, the colspan attribute, etc.) so maybe using that abbreviation here would be an appropriate way out of the potential conflict.

[acpirate]

would :nth-table-column() be too verbose?

[tabatkins]

Shorter's always better than longer, subject to understandability concerns.

I'm fine with :nth-col(), and like your HTML-based reasoning.

[css-meeting-bot]

The Working Group just discussed [selectors-4] Rename :nth-column to :nth-col, and agreed to the following resolutions:

• RESOLVED: rename :nth-column to :nth-col

The full IRC log of that discussion

<dael> Topic: [selectors-4] Rename :nth-column to :nth-col
<dael> github: https://github.com//issues/2157
<dael> fantasai: Reasoning is we have often discussed adding a pseudo element to select the columns and that would be ::column. If we do that we have the column psueco class and ::column psuedo element that have nothing to do with each other.
<dael> fantasai: WE don't normally abbriviate, but HTML uses col already so maybe we can break the conflict.
<dael> florian: This is impl nowhere?
<dael> fantasai: As far as I'm aware it's not impl.
<dael> dbaron: My worry is that it makes it sound like has something to do with nth col element rather then the nth column. THose aren't nec. the same.
<dael> dbaron: Tables have col elements with weird spanning mech.
<dael> fantasai: Yeah. Col is also used in html syntax in other places like scope=col. Col element is relatively obscure. I think it's fairly well understood that col is a column not a column element.
<dael> dbaron: I'd slightly prefer :nth-column but I won't hold up.
<dbaron> s/:nth-column/:nth-table-column/
<dael> fantasai: There are potentially other syntatix contrainsts, like there's a data grid. This can also be applied to non-html lang as well.
<fantasai> s/nth-column/nth-table-column/ iirc
<dael> Rossen_: nth-col will only match table columns? Or grid as wel?
<fantasai> s/constrainsts/constructs/
<dael> fantasai: It doesn't have anything to do with styling. Just markup, so it has nothing to do with grid. You might have a grid element in your markup and if the borwser decided to support your mark up it would work, but you'd have to have built in understanding of the markup language.
<dael> fantasai: These are based on the underlying data structure.
<dael> Rossen_: Okay.
<dael> Rossen_: That's good.
<dael> Rossen_: So, I heard slight preference for table col and table column. dbaron is :nth-col somehting you can live with?
<dael> dbaron: Yeha.
<dael> Rossen_: Obj?
<florian> go for it
<dael> RESOLVED: rename :nth-column to :nth-col