4 ms·

I only use spans and divs. header, paragraph, etc elements have intrinsic styles I rarely want, esp wrt margins

by jtxx 6y ago

nlightcho 6y ago
You should use a CSS reset stylesheet like https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css instead.
- jtxx 6y ago
  thanks, I didn’t know that was a thing
onion2k 6y ago
Eric Meyer wrote a good CSS reset more than 10 years ago. He made an updated version 8 years ago. https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/ https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/
the_other 6y ago
You need a “style sized solution to a style sized problem”. As the sibling posters have said, you can use reset stylesheets, or write your own. At a deeper level, you have to appreciate that browsers are built around the “separation of concerns”: - html for content - css for layout, look and feel - javascript for behaviour The front-end community has some loud voices at the moment telling us that these are the wrong separations; that the styles for a component go hand-in-hand with their behaviour and semantics. I’m not getting into that debate here. But I do want to say that this newer interpretation of the “concerns” applies to code you write for your application, and is (currently) not how browsers are constructed. It may make more sense for you as a web application developer to structure your code by colocating your layout and behaviour solutions in one file, and in that way you’re more likely to use <div> and <span> over more expressive elements. But that’s not what your users’ browsers are expecting you to do. They’re built around the older separation of concerns. And they’re built to amplify the strengths of the three languages they interpret. So that <div> tells the browser “i want you to treat this content just the same as you treat any other content”, where a <h1> tells the browser “add this content to your document outline, expose it as a section heading to the accessibility tree” as well as reminding it to apply the default styles. Attack the problem (unwanted styles) at the right level of separation (at the styles level).
- jtxx 6y ago
  hey, i really appreciate you breaking down the importance of using the expressive elements. i figured the use of ARIA would mitigate this, but after reviewing the MDN docs I saw > developers should prefer using the correct semantic HTML element over using ARIA so I guess that’s not as reliable. I was unfamiliar with CSS resets as well. will give this all a go
9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago
CSS reset concept is over 10 years old? I don't see what's the point.
- jtxx 6y ago
  never heard of it, thanks for putting me onto it. developing for 2~ years

I only use spans and divs. header, paragraph, etc elements have intrinsic styles I rarely want, esp wrt margins

by jtxx 6y ago

I only use spans and divs. header, paragraph, etc elements have intrinsic styles I rarely want, esp wrt margins

You should use a CSS reset stylesheet like https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css instead.

jtxx 6y ago
thanks, I didn’t know that was a thing

onion2k 6y ago

Eric Meyer wrote a good CSS reset more than 10 years ago. He made an updated version 8 years ago. https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/ https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

the_other 6y ago

You need a “style sized solution to a style sized problem”. As the sibling posters have said, you can use reset stylesheets, or write your own. At a deeper level, you have to appreciate that browsers are built around the “separation of concerns”: - html for content - css for layout, look and feel - javascript for behaviour The front-end community has some loud voices at the moment telling us that these are the wrong separations; that the styles for a component go hand-in-hand with their behaviour and semantics. I’m not getting into that debate here. But I do want to say that this newer interpretation of the “concerns” applies to code you write for your application, and is (currently) not how browsers are constructed. It may make more sense for you as a web application developer to structure your code by colocating your layout and behaviour solutions in one file, and in that way you’re more likely to use <div> and <span> over more expressive elements. But that’s not what your users’ browsers are expecting you to do. They’re built around the older separation of concerns. And they’re built to amplify the strengths of the three languages they interpret. So that <div> tells the browser “i want you to treat this content just the same as you treat any other content”, where a <h1> tells the browser “add this content to your document outline, expose it as a section heading to the accessibility tree” as well as reminding it to apply the default styles. Attack the problem (unwanted styles) at the right level of separation (at the styles level).

jtxx 6y ago
hey, i really appreciate you breaking down the importance of using the expressive elements. i figured the use of ARIA would mitigate this, but after reviewing the MDN docs I saw > developers should prefer using the correct semantic HTML element over using ARIA so I guess that’s not as reliable. I was unfamiliar with CSS resets as well. will give this all a go

9HZZRfNlpR 6y ago

CSS reset concept is over 10 years old? I don't see what's the point.

jtxx 6y ago
never heard of it, thanks for putting me onto it. developing for 2~ years