[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #50627: CSS Build process: Consider removing autoprefixer from the source folder.

[WordPress Trac]

#50627: CSS Build process: Consider removing autoprefixer from the source folder.
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 Reporter:  youknowriad       |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement       |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal            |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Build/Test Tools  |    Version:
 Severity:  normal            |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  css               |
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 Right now, the CSS build process is a bit unclear to me. It seems like
 there's a precommit hook to apply postcss autoprefixer to the CSS fils in
 src folder. This results in  "source code" and "built code" to be mixed
 together.

 The issue becomes more apparent as we explore using new techologies list
 CSS custom properties. If we continue with the current setup it means we'd
 have to include in the source code both the CSS variables used, and the
 necessary fallback for IE11 (as CSS variables are not supported there). So
 whenever we want to change the value of the CSS variable, we'd have to
 update all the fallback values, diminishing the value of the CSS variable
 in the first place.

 Autoprefixer and CSS Custom properties are the examples I have in mind
 right now, but this can be problematic for any similar CSS feature we'd be
 interested in.

 I think we should consider only applying the PostCSS tweaks (autoprefixer)
 to the build folder only. The downside is that the source "css" files
 won't have the necessary fallbacks for legacy browsers but they will still
 continue to work in most recent browsers.

 In an ideal world, source and dist are completely different but it's too
 soon for that as a lot of core developers still use the "src" folder.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50627>
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