Comments on: The Art and Zen of Writing CSS http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/ Why not take my word for it? Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:55:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Greg http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7534 Greg Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:55:29 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7534 <blockquote>Utilize comments to define how CSS should be formatted and written for other authors. Always count on the fact that someone other than you will probably work in this document at some point in time. Utilize comments to organize your code into sections. Comments can effectively become a navigation system within your CSS document</blockquote> As a fledgling web desinger this was a very good read. Thank you very much for the input on CSS standards. Yes, I know that you weren't really commenting on standards specifically, but if these were standards life would be easier.. I am working on a project right now that is hard to know what the author was thinking and as a result have recoded huge portions of the site.Explination in the code would have been VERY helpful. Thanks.

Utilize comments to define how CSS should be formatted and written for other authors.
Always count on the fact that someone other than you will probably work in this document at some point in time.
Utilize comments to organize your code into sections. Comments can effectively become a navigation system within your CSS document

As a fledgling web desinger this was a very good read. Thank you very much for the input on CSS standards. Yes, I know that you weren’t really commenting on standards specifically, but if these were standards life would be easier.. I am working on a project right now that is hard to know what the author was thinking and as a result have recoded huge portions of the site.Explination in the code would have been VERY helpful. Thanks.

]]> By: TG Designer » CSS Specificity And Inheritance http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7533 TG Designer » CSS Specificity And Inheritance Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:54:11 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7533 [...] good rule of thumb can be found in Jim Jeffers’ article, “The Art and Zen of Writing CSS”: Refactoring CSS selectors to be less specific is exponentially more difficult than simply [...] [...] good rule of thumb can be found in Jim Jeffers’ article, “The Art and Zen of Writing CSS”: Refactoring CSS selectors to be less specific is exponentially more difficult than simply [...]

]]> By: Nathan http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7529 Nathan Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:12:07 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7529 <a href="http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/#comment-7528" rel="nofollow">@Nathan</a>don't know where that wierd text at the front of the post came from... user error i imagine @Nathandon’t know where that wierd text at the front of the post came from… user error i imagine

]]> By: Nathan http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7528 Nathan Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:11:08 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7528 that will be eaTo add to the concept "Lesson One: Only be Specific When You Need to Be."I see a lot of people over-specifying widths when they should not. Like on your average block element - don't specify its width if you want it to take up the entire width of its container.That way, if you ever change the parent container's width the block elements with unspecified widths it automatically adjust properly.You're also free to apply margins & padding to a block element that hasn't had its width specified and you'll get the desired result. Put 20px padding on an unspecified width block element and it'll fill its container and have nice padding. If your width would have been specified, you would have had to subtract your padding from the container's width to get the proper size.Long story short: don't specify widths unless you need to. Your block elements will behave more like you would probably like them to. that will be eaTo add to the concept “Lesson One: Only be Specific When You Need to Be.”I see a lot of people over-specifying widths when they should not. Like on your average block element – don’t specify its width if you want it to take up the entire width of its container.That way, if you ever change the parent container’s width the block elements with unspecified widths it automatically adjust properly.You’re also free to apply margins & padding to a block element that hasn’t had its width specified and you’ll get the desired result. Put 20px padding on an unspecified width block element and it’ll fill its container and have nice padding. If your width would have been specified, you would have had to subtract your padding from the container’s width to get the proper size.Long story short: don’t specify widths unless you need to. Your block elements will behave more like you would probably like them to.

]]> By: CSS Specificity And Inheritance | Web Design Cool http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7526 CSS Specificity And Inheritance | Web Design Cool Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:27:57 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7526 [...] good rule of thumb can be found in Jim Jeffers’ article, “The Art and Zen of Writing CSS”: Refactoring CSS selectors to be less specific is exponentially more difficult than simply [...] [...] good rule of thumb can be found in Jim Jeffers’ article, “The Art and Zen of Writing CSS”: Refactoring CSS selectors to be less specific is exponentially more difficult than simply [...]

]]> By: CSS Specificity And Inheritance - Smashing Magazine http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7522 CSS Specificity And Inheritance - Smashing Magazine Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:36:10 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7522 [...] [...] [...] [...]

]]> By: Web Dev Tutorials 1# | Booto'Blog http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7516 Web Dev Tutorials 1# | Booto'Blog Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:49:11 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7516 [...] The Art and Zen of Writing CSS By Jim Jeffers, March 7th, 2010 Site: DontTrustThisGuy [...] [...] The Art and Zen of Writing CSS By Jim Jeffers, March 7th, 2010 Site: DontTrustThisGuy [...]

]]> By: Pol Moneys http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7485 Pol Moneys Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:21:29 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7485 Thanks for sharing. nothing new but classy. Thanks for sharing. nothing new but classy.

]]> By: Ulyses http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7483 Ulyses Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:50:06 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7483 I agree with (some of) what you say, I learn (some of what) you are so gentlemen to share with us.I don't (completly) agree on the styling for CSS rules. This is probably the most important thing when writing CSS. Later on, you can be misslead by the way you write it down earlier, so I believe in a semnatic aproach rather then a alphabetized one.I even made a rule, I "named a wizard" (like in focus-acitve...) to help with that, and I believe in more then a rule per line. I agree with (some of) what you say, I learn (some of what) you are so gentlemen to share with us.I don’t (completly) agree on the styling for CSS rules. This is probably the most important thing when writing CSS. Later on, you can be misslead by the way you write it down earlier, so I believe in a semnatic aproach rather then a alphabetized one.I even made a rule, I “named a wizard” (like in focus-acitve…) to help with that, and I believe in more then a rule per line.

]]> By: Ben Atkin http://donttrustthisguy.com/2010/03/07/the-art-and-zen-of-writing-css/comment-page-1/#comment-7321 Ben Atkin Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:45:37 +0000 http://donttrustthisguy.com/?p=391#comment-7321 <blockquote>The reality is if we don’t use CSS resets we implement them in a much more difficult manner.</blockquote> When I read this, I was instantly reminded of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun's_Tenth_Rule" rel="nofollow">Greenspun's Tenth Rule</a>:<blockquote>Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.</blockquote>I'm going to start insisting on using resets. There's science to back me up!(This is not to say that other people can't be efficient working without resets. But I know it's more trouble than it's worth for me.)

The reality is if we don’t use CSS resets we implement them in a much more difficult manner.

When I read this, I was instantly reminded of Greenspun’s Tenth Rule:

Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.

I’m going to start insisting on using resets. There’s science to back me up!(This is not to say that other people can’t be efficient working without resets. But I know it’s more trouble than it’s worth for me.)

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