OBJECT-ORIENTEDUNOBTRUSIVE CSS

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OBJECT-ORIENTEDUNOBTRUSIVE CSS

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JOHN HWANGCEO @ MUTUALLY HUMAN

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MUTUALLY HUMAN is an expert custom

software strategy & design consultancy

specializing in mobile & web-based

products & services.

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ERIC MEYER"Semantic Frameworks are a game-changer."

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RAILS 3.1Preprocessors for JavaScript and CSS

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UNOBTRUSIVE CSS

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ASSUMPTIONS

•Write beautiful and valid markup

•Mostly Use Semantic Markup & Class/ID Names

• Agree that separate of content, presentation and behavior is a Good Thing®

• Appreciate Unobtrusive JavaScript

• Aware of

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WHAT IS UNOBTRUSIVE CSS?

• True separation of presentation and content

•No presentational classes in your HTML

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THIS IS PRETTY CLEAN, BUT...

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WHY BUILD UNOBTRUSIVE STYLESHEETS?

• Implementation is faster

• Changing design is faster

•More flexibility for theming and alternate stylesheets

• Redesigns made easier

• Better SEO

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UNOBTRUSIVE CSS IS HARD

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WHAT MAKES UNOBTRUSIVE HARD?

The issues with current CSS techniques

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REPETITIVE SELECTORS Not DRY

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CSS LACKS ABSTRACTIONClasses are not for style reuse

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DIFFICULT TO CONTROL LAYOUT

• Grid Layouts are great, but requires a lot of careful pre-planning

•Must manually calculate widths and dimensions

• Internet Explorer

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EFFICIENCY/ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

• IE imposes a maximum limit of 31 individual stylesheets

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WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?• Code Reuse is almost non-existent

• Code Organization is non-existent

• File size just keep getting bigger

• Very difficult to create a sensible easy to understand CSS system

•Difficult to maintain or change

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CSS FRAMEWORKSBlueprint CSS, 960 Grid, YUI and many more...

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CSS FRAMEWORKS GAINED SOME TRACTION

• Promoted Grid Layout

• Best Practices

• Sensible Defaults

• Reset CSS

• Typography

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PROBLEM WITH CSS FRAMEWORKS

•Nothing more than a collection of CSS snippets

• Tight coupling of presentation and content

• Almost as bad as using <table> for layout

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HISTORY LESSONEvolution of Programming Languages

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EVOLUTION OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

• Punchcards/Assembly Language

• Procedural Code (C/Cobol/Fortran)

•Object Oriented Code (Java/C#/C++/Ruby)

• The All Compile Down to Assembly Language

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EVOLUTION OF CSS DEVELOPMENT

• CSS

• CSS Frameworks

• Semantic/Meta Frameworks

• Compiles down to CSS

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SEMANTIC/META FRAMEWORKS

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WHAT ARE CSS META FRAMEWORKS?

CSS, plus nested rules, variables, mixins, and more, all in a concise, readable syntax

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SASS"Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets"

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WHAT IS SASS?

•Nested Rules

• Variables

•Mixins

• Compiles & Outputs CSS

• Fully CSS3-compatible (SCSS Syntax)

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CSS3 COMPATIBLE

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VARIABLES

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NESTING

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MIXIN

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SELECTOR INHERITANCE

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HOW DOES SASS MAKE UNOBTRUSIVE CSS EASY?

Case Study

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STAGE 1

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BETTER YET...

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STAGE 2Implement new shell to house legacy content and new content

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NAMESPACE LEGACY CSS50+ legacy css files

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NESTED RULES FTW!CSS to SASS converter script FTW!

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ELIMINATED ALL PRESENTATIONAL CLASSES

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NESTED RULES MAKES CSS MORE CONCISE

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EFFICIENCY/ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUESImports are compiled down to 1 single CSS file

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OTHER BENEFITS OF COMPILATION

• Environment-dependent output formats

• Partials & imports

• Silent comments

• SassScript (Turing Complete)

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PROVOCATIVE STATEMENT #1HAML feels like an unnecessary abstraction

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If you're product is 10 times better than your competitor, ship it now!

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PROVOCATIVE STATEMENT #2HTML/CSS is Your Problem

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PROVOCATIVE STATEMENT #3 You probably don’t know CSS

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ERIC MEYER

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Q & A

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