Because Web browsers originally operated under a document-focused paradigm rather than an application-focused paradigm. (The CSS box model spec makes much more sense if you dig through it with this in mind.) Even after Javascript came out, there wasn't really a notion of a Web application in the modern sense- if you wanted to deliver rich content, the primary way to do it was via Flash or Java applets. I would hazard to say this was the case from around 1995 to 2005?
Anyways, I think the demand for more sophisticated layout systems didn't emerge in earnest until browsers started to experience the paradigm shift from "dynamic text document renderer" to "application runtime environment". If I had to put a date on it, I'd say that this happened during the 2005-2007 period, during which we saw the first big wave of Javascript libraries (including Prototype, jQuery, and MooTools), as well as the launch of the original iPhone _without_ Flash support.
As for the length of time it's taken to release Grid, it looks like W3C has at least been aware of the problem for quite some time- the first "Advanced Layout" Working Draft was published in 2005, but it looks like it didn't stabilize into the current Grid layout until about 2015.
> As for the length of time it's taken to release Grid, it looks like W3C has at least been aware of the problem for quite some time- the first "Advanced Layout" Working Draft was published in 2005, but it looks like it didn't stabilize into the current Grid layout until about 2015.
The current Grid layout is largely the same as that proposed by MS at the August 2010 F2F in Oslo.
Note that many of the early/mid-2000s specs essentially got paused while CSS 2.1 was finished (because it's hard to define new things clearly until you define the existing things clearly), and while waiting for more implementer interest.
The question is why it was deemed necessary to morph the document-centric Web into a Frankenplatform, and for what price. The complexity of CSS has already driven Opera (who once employed the original inventor of CSS) out of the business of producing a web renderer.
It’s a de facto platform driven by 3.5 billion users. No one “deemed” anything necessary, it just became. And it wasn’t for lack of trying, either (see Java, Adobe AIR, et. al.).
Anyways, I think the demand for more sophisticated layout systems didn't emerge in earnest until browsers started to experience the paradigm shift from "dynamic text document renderer" to "application runtime environment". If I had to put a date on it, I'd say that this happened during the 2005-2007 period, during which we saw the first big wave of Javascript libraries (including Prototype, jQuery, and MooTools), as well as the launch of the original iPhone _without_ Flash support.
As for the length of time it's taken to release Grid, it looks like W3C has at least been aware of the problem for quite some time- the first "Advanced Layout" Working Draft was published in 2005, but it looks like it didn't stabilize into the current Grid layout until about 2015.