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Comment by cormorant | Hacker News Reader

Totally irrational, of course, and now set in stone for backwards compatibility. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/tomat...

CSS Color Module Level 4 (draft) admits as much, and states "their use is not encouraged." https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/#named-colors

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In 2014, however, an unexpected event cast the color list in a more favorable light: a new shade. “Rebecca purple,” was introduced to honor the life of Rebecca Meyer, the daughter of Eric Meyer, a respected programmer and CSS writer. Rebecca died of brain cancer at the age of six; the hue (#663399) was chosen to reflect her favorite color. (A few developers opposed the addition, maintaining that a set of standards was no place for an emotional tribute. They were dismissed as curmudgeons.)

That colour is right in the top center of the tool we're discussing. I suspect that is not a coincidence.

I do agree that a Web standard is not the place for personal tributes. (Imagine how unusable the colour list would become if all the colours had random personal names in them!) Am I a terrible person for being aligned with the folks who opposed the addition?

No. But if you go on and on that you didn't get your way, you might be.

Fair.

When I loaded up the link, before viewing the comments in here, the very first thing I did was look for "Rebecca purple", and I was happy to find it. Not really a comment on your remarks, but thought I would share it.

I'm influenced by the having a daughter born around this time, and Rebecca's story sticks with me.

No, I agree. Web standards are not a place for personal tributes and documentations are not a place for political statements.

These days, we have both.

> documentations are not a place for political statements

Our work is a reflection of ourselves. Some of us feel strongly about issues that affect us in a personal way. You are likely referring to social issues you do not agree with, and as a gay man I have this to say: I will not stop asserting my right to exist openly, and that includes in the work I do.

No offense but thank you for demonstrating this issue perfectly.

You instantly assume that I am talking about social issues that I do not agree with or that do not affect me and feel personally attacked.

It's quite the opposite, though. I most often agree with the messages people put in their documentation. Some of them even have a very deep personal meaning for me.

Yet, I stand by my point that a technical documentation or standard is no place for them. You, I or nobody has any right to force someone who is trying to build software to listen to your/my/their personal beliefs and political opinions.

>You, I or nobody has any right to force someone who is trying to build software to listen to your/my/their personal beliefs and political opinions.

I'm going to continue to build, and to make, and to live, and to thrive.

There is never "a place" for inconvenient speech. This is an extremely privileged position.

Don't like it? Don't read my docs. Go consume elsewhere. Thanks!

It sounds like the two of you are talking about different things (personal creations vs. international standards) — perhaps that's a root of the disagreement?

Frankly, I was focusing less on the standards and more on documentation, but I would absolutely include an advocation for my human rights into any standard I was responsible for. There are still many countries I am unable to safely visit, and if they are going to use my work, I want them to at least be cognizant of their cruelty.

This genuinely sounds like satire to me. You don’t know the politics of the person you’re replying to, to say the least.

Additionally, even if I agree on your assertion of “your right to existing openly”, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise that right wherever you can get away with it and fuck the haters.

>You don’t know the politics of the person you’re replying to, to say the least.

I said likely, not absolute. After a certain amount of people complaining about your including social issues in your work, you begin to see a pattern :)

>it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise that right wherever you can get away with it and fuck the haters.

A brief aside of solidarity with my trans brothers and sisters is crucially important. The recent shooting in Colorado only strengthens my resolve.

You don't have to like it. You are free to complain about it. Thanks!

Is rebeccapurple really any worse than dodgerblue, cornflowerblue, greenyellow, or yellowgreen? At least it has "purple" in the name.

I take that to mean they're not discouraged. After all, the <marquee> element still appears to work in 2022. I imagine if named colors are ever removed as a feature from browsers, it won't be until a year like 2057.

We should instead encourage named colors AND recognize `chucknorris` as an actual HTML color value.

If Chuck Norris were a web color it would be #BADA55

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