[css-display] The 'flow' keyword is redundant

[MatsPalmgren]

It looks like all variations that includes the <display-inside> flow keyword computes to the same value when flow is removed, so the keyword looks redundant to me. (Maybe it's a remnant from when display-inside was a longhand and thus needed an initial value?) I tend to think we shouldn't add extra keywords that have no effect so I'd prefer to remove it (at least for now).

[tabatkins]

I'm not a huge fan of a behavior only being communicated thru the absence of a value; when possible, I prefer an explicit value being allowed, even if omitting it would give the same result in all cases. It makes the feature much easier to reason and talk about. This is why we've kept 'flow' here.

(It is indeed a remnant of the separated properties, tho.)

[tabatkins]

Agenda+ to see if the WG is okay with resolving as WONTFIX (keeping the value).

It's currently shipping in Firefox, at least, but not in Chrome.

[css-meeting-bot]

The CSS Working Group just discussed flow keyword is redundant, and agreed to the following:

• RESOLVED: close no change

The full IRC log of that discussion

<fantasai> Topic: flow keyword is redundant
<fantasai> github: https://github.com//issues/3998
<fantasai> TabAtkins: Mats pointed out that the 'flow' keyword doesn't technically do anything
<fantasai> TabAtkins: the display-outside value you pair it with, if don't specify anything else, it's implied
<fantasai> TabAtkins: was wondering why it's there
<fantasai> TabAtkins: there are 2 reasons
<fantasai> TabAtkins: it was a remnant of display-inside/display-outside as sperate properties
<fantasai> TabAtkins: did need a keyword for ordinatry flow
<fantasai> TabAtkins: when we collapsed back to shorthand, combined values
<fantasai> TabAtkins: and then I'm personally not a fan of states which are expressed by a lack of a keyword
<miriam> +1
<fantasai> TabAtkins: so prefer when a particular state allows an explicit keyword, even if getComptutedStyle omits it
<fantasai> TabAtkins: lastly, Firefox already shipped with it
<fantasai> TabAtkins: so my preferred resolution is to close no change, keep the keyword
<fantasai> astearns: any other comments?
<fantasai> RESOLVED: close no change
<fantasai> jensimmons: Sounds to me like this would have a big impact on authors for the reason we discussed earlier, and we want this
<fantasai> jensimmons: so all in favor of the resolution