Jens Oliver Meiert - The Little Book of HTML/CSS Frameworks

by Jens Oliver Meiert

Copyright 2015 Jens Oliver Meiert. All rights reserved.

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In the beginning, there was markup; and lo, it was good. Then came style sheets, which let the author make the markup pretty; and lo, they were also good.

Some of that goodness was rooted in simplicity. HTML was simple, charmingly so, and CSS started out as a small set of presentational suggestions that nevertheless allowed for a great deal of creativity. Even when you account for the fumbling browser implementations of early CSS, it was quite possible to hold in ones head every property, value, and common browser behavior. You could even document them all on a single page for easy reference.

That day is, of course, long since past. CSS has massively expanded in scope, depth, and complexity, and it has penetrated into unexpected places. Trying to keep track of everything CSS has to offer is incredibly difficult, and when you take into account all the varying support profiles and behaviors of desktop browsers, mobile browsers, OS adaptations, embedded firmware, and more, its practically impossible to comprehend a single snapshot, let alone keep up with ongoing changes.

So its no wonder there are so many CSS frameworks out there. Frameworks are a great way of taming complexity. Rather than have to remember all the fiddly details of vendor prefixes and syntax, and rather than have to put up with the limitations inherent in the CSS syntax (still no variables!), you can load up a framework and let er rip. You can even, depending on the framework, invoke a few simple classes to get precalculated layouts. Frameworks are popular for very good reasons.

On the other hand, in many ways weve traded one form of complexity for another. Its a veritable jungle of frameworks large and small out there, and figuring out how to navigate that jungle requires an expert guide to get you off to a good start. You need that guide not to tell you the specific characteristics of every plant and animal in the underbrush, but to give you hard-won advice on how to approach various situations, what to look for and what to avoid, and thus how to thrive in a constantly shifting environment.

A guide like Jens Meiert.

Ive known Jens professionally for many years now, and have been better for it. Jens is someone who always thinks deeply about the Web and the practice of building it, comes to a well-reasoned conclusion, and defends that position with honesty and candor. He cares as much as anyone Ive ever known about best practices in web development and will yield to nobody in his defense of that principle.

I know, because when a CSS reset I created became unexpectedly popular, Jens was tenacious in his view that nobody, but nobody, should use a CSS reset. While I didnt entirely agree with his conclusions about resets, I always valued his perspective in that debate, which was (as usual for Jens) an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about best and worst practices in web development. Many of his predictions about how resets would be abused came true. He made a strong case, one that was set on clear foundations and grounded in his passion for web development done right.

Some time later, Jens took that passion to Google and made significant progress in improving the markup Google produced. Anyone who cares about the Web will instantly understand what a huge contribution that was. Now hes applying that same passion to the subject of CSS frameworks.

If youre thinking about using a frameworkand there are, as youll soon read, very good reasons both for and against taking that courseJens high-level yet deeply practical advice will help you make the best decision you can. In a like manner, the principles he sets forth here will help you decide if perhaps you should develop your own framework, which is sometimes a much better idea than trying to use someone elses.

To framework or not to framework? Let Jens be your guide. I could not put you in any better hands.

Eric A. Meyer