The How (and why) of Houdini

What problems does houdini solve?

1. Slow Feature is Slow

Release

The Situation...

PrioriTIsation

Specification

Implementation

Refinement

Release

The Situation...

PrioriTIsation

Specification

Implementation

Refinement

Release

The Situation...

PrioriTIsation

Specification

Implementation

Refinement

Release

The Situation...

PrioriTIsation

Specification

Implementation

Refinement

Release

The Situation...

PrioriTIsation

Specification

Implementation

Refinement

We'Re stuck

How does Houdini help?

Return to The
extensible web manifesto

CSS Houdini is a W3C effort to define lower-level CSS DOM APIs for authors to understand, recreate, and extend high-level CSS authoring features.

definition: wiki.mozilla.org/CSS/Houdini

An official definition...

Allow web developers and browser-initiated libraries to take the lead in costly explorations.

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Make it possible to polyfill more of the platform's new features.

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Low-level APIs
+
Feedback
⇒
Adoption

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Low-level APIs
+
Feedback
⇒
Adoption

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Low-level APIs
+
Feedback
⇒
Adoption

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Low-level APIs
+
Feedback
⇒
Adoption

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Involving web developers in the process, and iterating, avoids the platform getting stuck with bad APIs

read: The Extensible Web Manifesto

A new (old) Approach...

Houdini is

a Toolbox

that

future-proofs

styling

 

a Toolbox

 

future-proofs

What problems does houdini solve?

 

2. Interoperability

or

"WHAT GRADIENTS CAN TEACH US ABOUT HOW CSS WORKS"

TDD: Twitter-Driven Development 👍

  • Gradients are static images
  • No individual access to colour stops
.app__header {
  background-image: linear-gradient(#e66465, #9198e5);
}

Having individual access to the variables means

we can update the gradient dynamically!

:root {
  --gradientStart: #e66465;
  --gradientEnd: #9198e5;
}

.app__header {
  background-image: linear-gradient(
    var(--gradientStart), 
    var(--gradientEnd)
  );
}
document.addEventListener('mousemove', (e) => {
  // Translate mouseX into degrees for HSL
  const xDegree  = getXDegree(e.clientX) // 0 - 360

  // Update custom properties
  setRootStyle('--grad-start', xDegree)       // => 180
  setRootStyle('--grad-end', xDegree + 120)   // => 300
})

Magic Animated Gradient

<html style="--grad-start: 180; --grad-end: 300">
body {
  // The H in HSL is a value in the range 0...360
  background: linear-gradient(
    hsl(var(--grad-start), 100%, 75%), 
    hsl(var(--grad-end), 100%, 50%)
  )
}
CSS
JS
HTML

Codepen: Magic Gradient

p {
  &::before {
    content: 'hsl(' var(--grad-start) ', 100%, 75%)';
  }

  &::after {
    content: 'hsl(' var(--grad-end) ', 100%, 50%)';
  }
}

Magic Gradient: Pseudo-content & Custom Props

Didn't work

😭

p {
  // Map custom-idents hueStart & hueEnd to Custom Props
  counter-reset:
    hueStart var(--grad-start)
    hueEnd var(--grad-end);

  // Use the value returned by counter(custom-ident)
  &::before {
    content: 'hsl(' counter(hueStart) ', 100%, 75%)';
  }
  &::after {
    content: 'hsl(' counter(hueEnd) ', 100%, 50%)';
  }
}

Magic Gradient: Pseudo-content & Custom Props

Type-juggling in CSS…

🤪

CSS IS A Turing Complete programming language

CSS IS A
TYPED LANGUAGE

🤯

IMPERATIVE

vs

Declarative

IMPERATIVE

vs

Declarative

telling machines what to do, letting them figure out to how to do it

This won't work

😭

:root {
  --gradientStart: #61BFD9;
  --gradientEnd: #0551B4;
}

@keyframes interpolate {
  from {
    --gradientStart: #61BFD9;
    --gradientEnd: #0551B4;
  }
  to {
    --gradientStart: #15AF88;
    --gradientEnd: #6C429A;
  }
}

.app__header {
  animation: interpolate 3s ease-in-out;
}

The browser knows how to turn one number into another

But if the variable type isn't understood as a number…

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"God help us, we're in the hands of engineers"

Custom Props are just spicy strings

The browser only speaks
3 languages...


How come they don't understand each
other better?

How does Houdini Help?

What's in the Toolset?

  • Paint API

  • Animation API

  • Layout API

  • Typed OM

  • Properties & VALUES

visit: houdini.glitch.me

  • Paint API

  • Animation API

  • Layout API

  • Typed OM

  • Properties & VALUES

visit: houdini.glitch.me

Worklets

  • Paint API

  • Animation API

  • Layout API

  • Typed OM

  • Properties & VALUES

visit: houdini.glitch.me

Worklets

Houdini Ingredients

Typed Om

  • Types are preserved between CSS & JS
el.attributeStyleMap.set('opacity', CSS.number(.5));
el.attributeStyleMap.get('opacity'); 
// CSSUnitValue { 
  value: 0.5, 
  unit: 'number' 
};

read: Working with the new CSS Typed Object Model

attributeStyleMap
el.style.opacity = 0.3;
typeof el.style.opacity === 'string'

Current CSSOM

Typed OM

Typed Om

const cs = document.querySelector('.content').computedStyleMap();

cs.get('background-position').x;
// CSSUnitValue {
//   value: 50,
//   unit: 'percent',
// }

cs.get('background-position').y;
// CSSMathSum {
//   operator: 'sum',
//   values: CSSNumericArray {
//     0: CSSUnitValue { value: -10, unit: 'px' },
//     1: CSSUnitValue { value: 100, unit: 'percent' },
//   },
// }
.content {
  background-position: center bottom 10px;
}

sample.css

sample.js

computedStyleMap

Properties and values

CSS.registerProperty({
  name: "--gradientStart",
  syntax: "<color>",
  initialValue: "#61BFD9",
  inherits: true
});
@property --gradientStart {
  syntax: "<color>";
  initialValue: "#61BFD9";
  inherits: true;
};

Proposed CSS syntax

Current JS syntax

Polyfill: PostCSS Register Property

Worklets

  • Isolated JavaScript contexts
  • Must be parallelised (at least 2 instances)
  • Invoked by the rendering engine
  • Almost no access to global scope

"The foundation on which

Houdini is built"

@snugug

Worklets: Paint API

  • Canvas-like drawing context
  • Can "paint" anywhere images are supported

visit: extra.css

h1 {
  --extra-confettiNumber: 30;
  --extra-confettiLengthVariance: 15;
  --extra-confettiWeightVariance: 4;
  
  background: paint(extra-confetti);
}

Worklets: Animation API

  • Allows animations based on user input
  • Unlocks performant parallax (please use sparingly!)

read: Houdini's Animation Worklet

Worklets: Layout API

  • Complete control over the display property
  • Able to polyfill layout specs like Container Queries

watch: Custom Layout Walkthrough

Part 4:

Where Are we now?

visit: ishoudinireadyyet.com

visit: ishoudinireadyyet.com

Part 5:

How do I get started?

Explainer: Houdini Spellbook

Aggregator: Awesome-CSS-Houdini

Examples: css-houdini.rocks

examples: Google Chrome Labs

in-depth articles: developers.google.com

Part 6:

Closing thoughts

Shareable, reusable, drop-in code: extra.css

Houdini is going to change

the way we write CSS

Houdini is great for

performance

  • To device:  3Kb JS
  • On device: 60FPS

Houdini is a

progressive enhancement

Houdini helps us write

more robust code

<header class="app__header">
  <figure class="header__jeffs">
    <img
      src="/img/jeff1.jpg"
      alt="Jeff YEAH"
      data-grad-start="#61bfd9"
      data-grad-end="#0551b4"
    />
    <img
      src="/img/jeff2.jpg"
      alt="Jeff again"
      data-grad-start="#15AF88"
      data-grad-end="#6C429A"
    />
    <img
      src="/img/jeff3.jpg"
      alt="It's all Jeff"
      data-grad-start="#EEA031"
      data-grad-end="#930560"
    />
  </figure>
</header>
  • Consistent types
  • Clamped values
  • No more string-based arithmetic bugs

CSS

♥

JS

vs

2014-2019

CSS

♥

JS

What Houdini really means

Thank you

@oliverturner

The How of Houdini

By Oliver Turner

Made with Slides.com

The How of Houdini

Houdini is called "the future of CSS" but how does it work? How will it change UI programming? How does it bring CSS and JS together again? How can I use it today?

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