Deprecating cssnext

2018-05-29

Following my farewell to CSS, I am deprecating cssnext.

tl;dr

Just switch to postcss-preset-env.

Why are you doing this?

Like I said in my farewell to CSS post, I don't use CSS directly anymore. And things have been this way for years now. I also have been tired of PostCSS (because I disagree with the vision and the directions taken by the project).

Beside the fact that I were not using CSS directly anymore, too many PostCSS releases meant that I had to update most of the PostCSS plugins underneath cssnext in order to adapt to the new or changed APIs. This was a very time consuming process. At the time being one of the most active PostCSS contributors, I wasn’t always warned about these API changes. This eventually motivated me to just stop contributing to this ecosystem, even if I created the PostCSS GitHub organization in the first place.

Why didn't you give the project to someone else?

I tried. I gave 3 of the most active contributors in the cssnext/PostCSS ecosystem rights over the repo, but given everyone’s time and priorities, it wasn’t enough to ensure the project would be sufficiently maintained.

I also tried to ask for help via Twitter, but no response.

Then one active member of PostCSS organization made a fork (kind of) and it's probably better already than cssnext ever was. If you still want to use CSS, you should take a look at it.

Why don't you just let this thing rot?

That's not my type. I tried to maintain the package for a while, as the number of downloads prove that people are actually using it. But now that a solid alternative is around (postcss-preset-env), I think it's time to deprecate cssnext.

Migration to postcss-preset-env

Migration should be pretty easy.

In short, just replace postcss-cssnext with postcss-preset-env and choose your stage.

If you want a sort of changelog, here is what you can expect

Removed

  • •
    pixrem (generates pixel fallbacks for rem units)
  • •
    postcss-calc (reduces calc, not really a polyfill)
  • •
    postcss-color-function (color() is now color-mod())
  • •
    postcss-color-rgba-fallback (IE8 fallback for alpha colors)
  • •
    postcss-pseudoelements (IE8 fallback for : => :: pseudos)

Added

  • •
    postcss-color-mod-function (color() is now color-mod())
  • •
    postcss-dir-pseudo-class (:dir(ltr) and :dir(rtl) directional selectors)
  • •
    postcss-focus-visible (requires WICG focus-visible js polyfill)
  • •
    postcss-focus-within (requires focus-within js polyfill)
  • •
    postcss-logical (new margin-block, inset, etc. directional properties)
  • •
    postcss-page-break (fallback break- properties with page-break- alias)

Available but inactive by default (Stage 3+ is active by default):

  • •
    postcss-color-rgb (Stage 2)
  • •
    postcss-custom-media (Stage 2)
  • •
    postcss-custom-selectors (Stage 2)
  • •
    postcss-nesting (Stage 1)
  • •
    postcss-apply (Rejected as a standard)

You will find more accurate and up to date informations on this notice to cssnext users on postcss-preset-env repo

Hope this way you don't feel abandonned. This is better for you to upgrade and rely on a more mature database, with stages, or like me, stop using CSS directly.