Link tags: classes

What is Utility-First CSS?: HeydonWorks

Heydon does a very good job of explaining why throwing away the power of selectors makes no sense.

Utility-first detractors complain a lot about how verbose this is and, consequently, how ugly. And it is indeed. But you’d forgive it that if it actually solved a problem, which it doesn’t. It is unequivocally an inferior way of making things which are alike look alike, as you should. It is and can only be useful for reproducing inconsistent design, wherein all those repeated values would instead differ.

He’s also right on the nose in explaining why something as awful at Tailwind could get so popular:

But CSS isn’t new, it’s only good. And in this backwards, bullshit-optimized economy of garbage and nonsense, good isn’t bad enough.

Naming things needn’t be hard - Classnames

A handy resource from Paul:

Find inspiration for naming things – be that HTML classes, CSS properties or JavaScript functions – using these lists of useful words.

Progressively Enhanced Form Validation, Part 1: HTML and CSS – Cloud Four

A great reminder of just how much you can do with modern markup and styles when it comes to form validation. The :user-invalid and :user-valid pseudo-classes are particularly handy!

Here’s what I didn’t know about :where() - Manuel Matuzović

I feel like I’m starting to understand how the CSS :where pseudo-class works and why it’s useful. The cogs are slowly turning in my brain.

No, Utility Classes Aren’t the Same As Inline Styles | frontstuff

This is supposed to be a defence of utility classes …but it’s actually a great explanation of why classes in general are a great mechanism for styling.

I don’t think anyone has ever seriously suggested using inline styles—the actual disagreement is about how ludicrously rigid and wasteful the class names dictated by something like Tailwind are. When people criticise those classes they aren’t advocating for inline styles—they’re advocating for better class names and making more use of the power of the class selector in CSS, not less.

Anyway, if you removed every instance of the word “utility” from this article, it would still work.

Can I :has()

This would be such a great addition to CSS—a parent/ancestor selector!

With the combined might of :has(), :not(), nth-child(), and calc(), CSS has become a powerful language for specifying rules to account for all kinds of situations.

monica.css – Monica Dinculescu

Monica shares the little snippet of handy CSS she uses at the start of any project.

A Modern CSS Reset - Andy Bell

Some very smart ideas in here for resetting default browser styles, like only resetting lists that have classes applied to them:

ul[class],
ol[class] {
  padding: 0;
}

I select only lists that do have a class attribute because if a plain ol’ <ul> or <ol> gets used, I want it to look like a list. A lot of resets, including my previous ones, aggressively remove that.

Use the :lang pseudo-class over the lang attribute selector for language-specific styles

This is a great explanation of the difference between the [lang] and :lang CSS selectors. I wouldn’t even have thought’ve the differences so this is really valuable to me.

CSS-only multiple choice quizzing - Matthew Somerville

In which Matthew disects a multiple choice quiz that uses CSS to do some clever logic, using the :checked pseudo-class and counter-increment.

Oh, and this is how he realised it wasn’t using JavaScript:

I have JavaScript disabled on my phone because a) it cuts out most of the ads, b) it cuts out lots of bandwidth and I have a limited data plan, and c) my battery lasts longer because it’s not processing tons of code to show me some text (cough, Medium).

[selectors] Functional pseudo-class like :matches() with 0 specificity · Issue #1170 · w3c/csswg-drafts

A really interesting proposal from Lea that would allow CSS authors to make full use of selectors but without increasing specificity. Great thoughts in the comments too.

Microformats : Meaningful HTML

A great one-page intro to microformats (h-card in particular), complete with a parser that exports JSON. Bookmark this for future reference.

kamranahmedse/design-patterns-for-humans: Design Patterns for Humans™ - An ultra-simplified explanation

I’m crap at object-oriented programming (probably because I don’t get get enough practice), but I’ve had a quick read through this and it looks like a nice clear primer. I shall return and peruse in more depth next time I’m trying to remember how to do all this class-based stuff.

Kiss My Classname - Zeldman on Web & Interaction Design

I understand how bloated and non-reusable code can get when a dozen people who don’t talk to each other work on it over a period of years. I don’t believe the problem is the principle of semantic markup or the cascade in CSS. I believe the problem is a dozen people working on something without talking to each other.

How Will Web Components Change CSS Architecture? - Snook.ca

Depending on how you’re currently structuring your CSS and class attributes, web components might not make all that much of a difference to your workflow.

marmelab/universal.css: The only CSS you will ever need

Ensure that your class names never go out of sync with your style declarations with this one simple trick:

Take any CSS rule you want to apply, replace : by -, and dots by -dot-, and you get the name of the corresponding universal css classname.

The only thing missing is immutability, so I would suggest also putting !important after each declaration in the CSS. Voila! No more specificity battles.

Confessions Of A CSS Expert

Funny because it’s true:

The thing I regret the most is how my class addiction affected my relationship with HTML.

Curiosity Hub

This nifty place in Brighton is just down the street from me:

Our classes allow kids to get creative with exciting, cutting-edge technology and software.

Why you should say HTML classes, CSS class selectors, or CSS pseudo-classes, but not CSS classes - Tantek

I love that Tantek is as pedantic as I am …although I don’t think “pedantic” is exactly the right word.

Classes? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Classes! | Smashing Coding

This is a well-reasoned, thoughtful article on avoiding class names in CSS …but I don’t agree with it. That said, perhaps there’s a reasonable middle ground to be found between this extreme stance and the opposite (but in some ways just as extreme) stance of OOCSS.