By making use of modern CSS features, in this case [CSS variables](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_variables), implementing sidebar resizing is actually quite simple. Not only will the amount of added code be fairly small, but it should also be easy to maintain since there's no need for complicated JavaScript hacks in order to update the CSS. Another benefit is that the JavaScript code doesn't need to make detailed assumptions about the exact structure of the HTML/CSS code.
Obviously this will not work in older browsers, such as IE, that lack support for CSS variables. In those cases sidebar resizing is simply disabled (via feature detection), and the resizing DOM element hidden, and the behaviour is thus *identical* to the current (fixed-width) sidebar.
However, considering the simplicity of the implementation, I really don't see why limiting this feature to "modern" browsers is a problem.
Finally, note that a few edge-cases meant that the patch is a bit larger than what the basic functionality would dictate. Among those is first of all proper RTL support, and secondly (automatic) resizing of the sidebar when the width of the *entire* viewer changes. Another, pre-existing, issue fixed here is the incomplete interface of `NullL10n`.
*Please note:* This patch has been successfully tested in both LTR and RTL viewer locales, in recent versions of Firefox and Chrome.
Fixes 2072.
