Relying on rem units is close to possible with accepted T248061: RFC: Remove IE 8 from basic support and proposed T262946: Bump Firefox version in basic support to 3.6 or newer.
We should consider using rems in modern Vector as
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | Jdrewniak | T341631 [EPIC] Q1 Main hypothesis: Typographical and palette customizations | |||
| Open | Jdrewniak | T313828 [EPIC] Typography: improve typography and allow for variable typography settings | |||
| Resolved | Jdlrobson | T264309 Reorganize Vector CSS folder structure | |||
| Open | None | T313225 Various parts of MediaWiki don't respect default browser font size | |||
| Resolved | BUG REPORT | Jdlrobson | T345766 Split the Vector "common" CSS module into two: one for Legacy Vector and one for Vector 2022 | ||
| Resolved | BUG REPORT | Mabualruz | T346062 [Visual change/refactor] Change 13px font-size in Vector toolbar to 14px | ||
| Open | Jdrewniak | T261334 [Goal] Font-size: Use `rem` in modern Vector |
I'm moving this back to the backlog. because as discussed in the gerrit patch here I think we should create a separate variables file for modern Vector if we're going to have different font-related variables (at least at first) in modern and legacy Vector.
The work to create those files (and generally bring more consistency to the CSS folder structure) has been captured in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T264309
Change 622742 abandoned by Jdlrobson:
[mediawiki/skins/Vector@master] [POC] Switch font-size to rem
Reason:
abandoning POC for now (is associated with phab ticket)
@Volker_E I know you are busy right now, but when you get a moment let's chat about what we want to achieve here and how. I am also not sure how this fits in with WVUI / Vue.js decision making.
For the Vector interface I think rem is fine to use now (when ensuring that it doesn't break extensions in a not documented and shared way). For content I don't think we're able to use it yet as it takes up too much testing capacity and too many unknowns. Also interoperability between skins would be under threat.
WVUI/Vue.js has nothing to bring to the table in this case as any future shared UI library has to work across themes – as long as something like T262928 isn't in place no relation here.
I am very interested in using rems instead of ems to avoid the cascading headaches associated with ems. Based on @Volker_E's comment above, I assume this is okay to do this now?
Since we only questionably support IE11, I don't think there are any technical reasons not to use them.
I don't think we need an explicit task for using rems. I was imagining we'd do this as part of font changes (T313828) whenever those happening.
We'll likely need rem support for font size changes so it would be good to make this switch. Note stylelint currently complains about rem units - I've asked over at https://github.com/wikimedia/stylelint-config-wikimedia/issues/98#issuecomment-1610198614
@Jdrewniak how does this fit in with the work on font-size this quarter? e.g. when / how do we want to do this?
The new Zebra design uses rem's so when that goes live we'll be all in on rems.
We have no plans to use rems in legacy Vector which is effectively frozen at this point.
Given the rollout of Zebra is stalled, I think we should pursue this task as part of the font-size work, separate from Zebra.
Change 966897 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdrewniak; author: Jdrewniak):
[mediawiki/skins/Vector@master] Normalize small font sizes in Vector 2022
Change 968314 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jdlrobson; author: Jdrewniak):
[mediawiki/skins/Vector@wmf/1.42.0-wmf.2] [Visual change] Normalize small font sizes in Vector 2022
Change 966897 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/skins/Vector@master] [Visual change] Normalize small font sizes in Vector 2022
Change 968314 abandoned by Jdlrobson:
[mediawiki/skins/Vector@wmf/1.42.0-wmf.2] [Visual change] Normalize small font sizes in Vector 2022
Reason: