
Adding 'rebeccapurple' color to CSS Color Level 4 (2014) - mendelk
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Jun/0312.html
======
ecaron
Longer conversation on this from last year:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7924677](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7924677)

------
captn3m0
\- Eric Meyer wrote about it:
[http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2014/06/19/rebeccapurple/](http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2014/06/19/rebeccapurple/)

The purple is actually quite vibrant: [http://www.color-
hex.com/color/663399](http://www.color-hex.com/color/663399)

------
91bananas
Eric's writings about his daughter, his family, himself through it all, are
_intense_ to read through. Glad the community was able and willing to push
this through so quickly as a sign of respect to her.

------
toxican
I understand the arguments against this, but I don't think I've ever met a web
developer that actually still uses the color names. I saw it often in 2007 or
so, but not at all anymore. So I'm left not really caring about a slippery
slope of names appearing in a list of things nobody uses.

And I should say that despite color names not really being used, it's still a
very nice gesture.

~~~
patja
They are a nice transitional crutch for students just getting started. I teach
html, css, and javascript to 13 year olds using Adobe Brackets. The color name
code completion is a big assist early on when introducing the basics of CSS
before getting into the more daunting hex codes or RGBA values.

~~~
toxican
Agreed. That's the last time that I used them. Then I branched into #ffffff,
#000000, learned how the shorthand hex codes worked, etc. They don't really
have a place in a professional environment though, so adding a new on as a
tribute doesn't really harm anything at all, imo.

------
natural219
For those unaware of Eric Meyer's story, I implore you to listen to Shop Talk
Show's interview with him about the general topic of "designing for crisis":
[http://shoptalkshow.com/episodes/161-with-eric-
meyer/](http://shoptalkshow.com/episodes/161-with-eric-meyer/)

This topic I feel would be dear to many HN readers, as his experience really
gets at the heart of design, technology, and the human experience. It raises
the question of how important design really is in those key moments of crisis
and tragedy, and how we still have a long way to go in our society to optimize
for the 5% of experiences that fall outside of "the happy path" (double
entendre).

Hearts out to Mr. Meyer for his loss.

------
calvin
You can check to see if your browser has the color:

[http://output.jsbin.com/derewavufu/1](http://output.jsbin.com/derewavufu/1)

Look for purple background. Firefox 38 and Chrome 42 have it.

~~~
glass-
IE11 and Opera 29 have it.

------
ddoolin
Out of curiosity: Are there any other semantically unrelated color names in
the spec?

~~~
talmand
AliceBlue, named for Roosevelt's daughter that started the color trend in
fashion.

There's also Peru, but I'm not sure what that's about.

~~~
rburhum
As a peruvian, that brown color can only mean two things; the beautiful color
of the Andes, or the shitty state of peruvian politics. Either way, I am cool
with it.

~~~
rburhum
OK, jokes on the side, although I really don't know for sure the source, I
would say that brown color is very typical in Peru.

\- You can see it in the Andes mountains:
[http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/8000/8924/...](http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/8000/8924/ISS017-E-7322_lrg.jpg)

[http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Sh...](http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/POD/a/andes-
mountains-haas-1110869-sw.jpg)

\- You can see it in the clay that is used for rooftops:
[http://curanderos.ru/peru/18374000.jpg](http://curanderos.ru/peru/18374000.jpg)

\- The color of the salt mines: [http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/maras-salt-
mines-peruvian-and...](http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/maras-salt-mines-
peruvian-andes-cuzco-peru-july-woman-working-july-34963697.jpg)

\- In the _huge_ amount of peruvian clay pottery:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=peruvian+andes&espv=2&biw=12...](https://www.google.com/search?q=peruvian+andes&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=1318&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NTZaVeiXBc_doASFuoLABg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=1#tbm=isch&q=peruvian+clay+pottery&spell=1)

* Un the die for the textiles: [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/9b/34/639b34468...](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/9b/34/639b3446882bf509ff2f7657a946c2e7.jpg)

* Even in natural disasters when the river flows out ("huaycos") and destroys roads: [http://cde.publimetro.e3.pe/ima/0/0/0/1/7/17391.jpg](http://cde.publimetro.e3.pe/ima/0/0/0/1/7/17391.jpg)

Surprised there is a peruvian brown - but it makes sense to me :)

------
nathannecro
I just want to point to a post by Eric which essentially captures what it's
like to hear that a loved one is chronically sick.

[http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2013/08/19/77-hours/](http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2013/08/19/77-hours/)

------
Lawtonfogle
As to the question of if it should be done?

Normally I'm one to optimize, so much so that premature optimization is
something I must stand vigilant for. And I do understand how adding names to a
standard adds ever so slight a bloat. And I understand there are only ~4K
shorthand hex colors to assign names to.

But honestly I don't have a problem with this. I'm having a hard time
explaining why, but the simplistic way to express it is by saying it is art.
Part of the CSS specification has now impacted me emotionally on a deeper
level than most art I've seen, especially when you read why it is
rebeccapurple and not beccapurple.

No, it isn't perfectly optimized. But there is value in trading spartan
utility for beauty, especially when the cost is so low.

Even though I cannot articulate why, given this knowledge I now care more
about the CSS sepcifications.

------
Lawtonfogle
Does anyone know why #663399 was chosen in particular? I did some quick
searching but couldn't find much.

As far as I can find, this was the original suggestion, which doesn't specify
why it was that particular one.

[http://discourse.specifiction.org/t/name-663399-becca-
purple...](http://discourse.specifiction.org/t/name-663399-becca-purple-in-
css4-color/225)

------
legulere
The CSS colors seem like a bad idea to me. Apart from the basic ones it's
pretty hard to set them into relation. I don't know the difference between
brown and saddlebrown without looking. They also add to code-bloat without
really adding a functionality.

------
cbd1984
One way around the implied slippery slope is to impose a time limit: If anyone
still wants this in after twenty years, it goes in, but not before.

Yes, it's arbitrary. These are _color names_. They're inherently arbitrary. If
there's no limit, our list of CSS colors will become a list of dead people,
which is nice and all but isn't useful for the task of assigning human-
meaningful names to points on the color spectrum. Let's see, was this dead kid
bluer or redder than that dead kid...

~~~
schwabacher
there is a limit of 16^6 24 bit colors

~~~
cbd1984
So if this becomes a thing, there are people who will be left out, simply
because either the community arbitrarily says "No" just like it arbitrarily
said "Yes" in the past, or because there's no more room in the spec. Either
way is a recipe for bad blood.

"Rough consensus and running code" is a powerful methodology for low-overhead
development right up until it means everyone gets all emotional over what a
color is named and whether there are too many memorials in something
originally designed to be simple and useful. Say what you will about
bureaucracy, it at least enforces a certain emotional distance when people are
bound by rules and can legitimately say that their refusal is nothing
personal.

~~~
a3n
"Either way is a recipe for bad blood."

In this case, that sounds like an attempt at premature social optimization.

It's a nice gesture. If it becomes a problem we'll deal with it.

