[css-color-6] color-contrast() syntax is confusing

[manuelmeister]

Why do we use vs and not just something like this:

color-contrast() = color-contrast( <color> [ , <color>#{2,}  [ , to [<number> | AA | AA-large | AAA | AAA-large]]? ]? )

Because for me, the following looks like only maroon is tested to AA and only wheat and bisque are compared.

color-contrast(wheat vs bisque, darkgoldenrod, olive, sienna, darkgreen, maroon to AA)

I think this would be much more readable:

color-contrast(wheat, bisque darkgoldenrod olive sienna darkgreen maroon, to AA)

[LeaVerou]

I agree that a keyword implies higher precedence than a comma, both in programming languages, as well as natural language. Every time I see a vs b, c I read it as (a vs b), c, rather than the intended a vs (b, c).

I like @fantasai's suggestion which I listed in #7359.

We should also not have metadata about the whole operation at the end of a comma-separated list. There is no precedent for that in CSS, and it makes it weird to read.

[fantasai]

Yeah, the grammatical pattern we should follow here is probably linear-gradient() et al.

[LeaVerou]

Discussed in NYC F2F, discussion in #7359