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Okay, so now that we know a little but more about the history of CSS, let's take

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a look at what is going on with it currently.

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Now, please keep in mind that the changing nature of CSS means that what I am

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about to show you here is likely to have changed significantly since I

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recorded this movie.

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So take what I'm showing you here as more of a guide to finding out what's going

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on with CSS, rather than a snapshot of how it really looks in its current state.

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To get a high-level overview of what's going on with CSS, visit the W3C's

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Cascading Style Sheets Current Work page.

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Here you are going to find a complete list of all the CSS modules, their current

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status, priority level and a timeline for when the model could reach

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recommendation status.

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So let's take a closer look.

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First, you'll notice that we have a list of modules and specifications that

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are split into four groups, based on level of completion and priority.

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Listed beside the modules, you'll see their current status and any

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upcoming revisions.

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Now if these modules are live on the W3C site, you can simply click on the

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current status for the latest revision of the specification itself.

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Now, if I go back and click on the name of the specification, I am taken to a

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brief description of it and then a timeline for the specification track.

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To help make sense of the module's status, it helps if you know all the steps of

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the document goes through on its way to recommendation status.

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So let's take a closer look at that as well.

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I am just going to hit the Back button to go back to our Current Work page.

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If I scroll all the way down towards the bottom,

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I can see an exclamation of those colors and the statuses what we are talking about.

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So, documents are first published as a public working draft.

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Now this is the stage where most of the collaborative work behind the

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standard itself is done.

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Once the working draft stage starts coming to a close, the standard is just

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going to go into what they call the last call stage.

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Now last call, it is just essentially a way of letting people know that the

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standard is about to move to the next stage of testing.

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So any reviews that people might have, edits, or additional implementations need

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to be done before the proposed deadline.

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Now after this last call, a standard moves into what they call

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candidate recommendation.

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Now although the standard is considered stable at this point, implementations

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are being studied and changes can be made at this stage if required.

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So they are last-minute changes, but they can still be done.

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Now from there, specifications move on to the proposed recommendation and

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published recommendation statuses.

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Now using those as a guide, it's pretty easy, if we scroll back through this list, to

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see which models are stable and which ones still might see significant changes

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prior to publication.

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Now, as you would imagine, the specifications that are listed as high priority

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are a bit further along than some of the other specs.

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However, make sure you don't confuse a specification's status with the current

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state of its implementation.

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Certainly keeping track of the CSS modules and their timelines will give you a

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better idea of which modules to focus on as you learn CSS, versus the ones that

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maybe you could put off for the near future.

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However, many of the features that are currently in working draft status are

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actually further along in terms of being implemented by browsers than those

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that are in some of the candidate recommendations.

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The bottom line here is that you need to keep your eye on both what's going on

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with the specifications and how browsers are implementing them.

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We will discuss how to track browser implementation a little bit later on, after

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we are through taking a closer look and reading through the CSS specifications.