Matt Wilcox's first two points are fair, though I see them as inconveniences 
rather than blockers.

To his third point, however: 

I see the suggestion mentioned on occasion that content image sizes and design 
breakpoints should be coordinated, but in practice, I personally haven't found 
much of a need for that coordination.

In the responsive layouts I've worked on, content image sizes and their 
breakpoints were chosen for completely different reasons than the design (CSS) 
breakpoints: the former for sensible jumps in file size to match screen 
dimension and/or density, and the latter for how content modules are visibly 
designed at given viewport dimensions.

Design breakpoints can be plentiful, especially when factoring in all the minor 
and major tweaks in multi-column responsive layout. Yet for content images, 
I've found the need for fewer breakpoints, or even entirely different 
breakpoints than the design. In a site like the bostonglobe.com for example, 
2-3 image sizes provide sensible jumps in file size, and because the images 
live a fluid layout, they scale to fill the layout gaps as the CSS breakpoints 
shift much more frequently around them.  If an image needs finer coordination 
than that with its design, perhaps it might be considered a design asset that 
should be handled in CSS with background images; I guess I'd need to see some 
examples of where this problem could occur. 

There are sure to be gray areas here. I'm just not sure I agree that the 
redesign problem is all that much of a real concern for this feature. Matt, if 
you disagree, do you have any examples you could provide?

Thanks!


On May 28, 2012, at 12:29 PM, Matthew Wilcox wrote:

> Personally I think it's better than either <picture> or srcset alone.
> But I don't think it's good enough even so, it still has problems:
> 
> * It's verbose (but less-so than <picture>).
> * It has two attributes that could easily be confused as doing the
> same job. There's little clear logic as to why they're split, from an
> authors viewpoint.
> * It bakes design properties into the mark-up. They will be the wrong
> breakpoints come any re-design.
> 
> That last one is killer for me. And I've no idea how to address it either :s
> 
> -Matt
> 
> On 28 May 2012 17:23, Mathew Marquis <m...@matmarquis.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On May 24, 2012, at 3:58 AM, Florian Rivoal wrote:
>> 
>>> On Wed, 23 May 2012 21:18:25 +0200, Scott Jehl <sc...@scottjehl.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> With this proposal, could "src" be used on a source element if you don't 
>>>> need the features srcset provides?
>>>> 
>>>> Or maybe, would that just be equivalent to srcset with a single source 
>>>> listed?
>>> 
>>> I have no strong preference for src vs srcset with a single source and no 
>>> density
>>> qualifier, but yes, one of them should be available.
>>> 
>> 
>> I’m a little uneasy at the silence following Florian’s proposal. I’d love to 
>> hear the WHATWG’s thoughts on this compromise.
>> 
>>> - Florian
>> 

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