3 ms·

I don't get it. I mean, yeah I get wanting to make extremely minimal web pages that are readable on every screen. But if that's your goal, the solutions are pre

I don't get it. I mean, yeah I get wanting to make extremely minimal web pages that are readable on every screen. But if that's your goal, the solutions are pretty well understood. Who's the target audience for this, i.e. who are the people who are trying to make a bare bones web page but just struggling with `max-width` - and why's it at the top of HN?

sebtron 1y ago
> who are the people who are trying to make a bare bones web page but just struggling with `max-width` Anyone making a personal website?
- noduerme 1y ago
  If you want to make a personal website, you have two routes: Use a template thing like wordpress, with a GUI, or learn at least a bare minimum of HTML, CSS and probably some Javascript, as well as how to set up a server. What's offered in this article is not very useful to making a personal website... it's like if you wanted to bake a cake, and you read an article saying that frosting is made from sugar and butter. This isn't news and it's it's not particularly useful to baking your cake either. Just to like, follow up: 99% of the point of making your personal website is, like, making it fucking personal which is to say that you put your own time and energy into learning something in the process. Copy/pasting random CSS from the web is not learning. Also, copy/pasting this particular CSS is not even showing the slightest bit of interest. So consider: Why would anyone care about your personal website if you don't care enough to learn how to make it, you know, personal by actually learning a tiny bit about the art you're trying to put into practice? And none of this even starts to explain why this junk would be popular here. There are some brilliant CSS hacks in the wild that deserve attention, but this is sub-par even for child's play that might teach you how to do something useful. It's not even a lesson. It's just some crap you don't understand that you might copy and paste, with almost no explanation.
monadgonad 1y ago
Me. I'm a backend developer who occasionally wants to make a web frontend for a side-project but knows essentially no CSS. The solutions are not "well understood" by me because I know no CSS.
- berkes 1y ago
  > occasionally wants to make a web frontend In that case I'd say the problem is exactly what you state > knows essentially no CSS The solution is quite obvious then too: learn some. It's not hard. Understanding the basics is a afternoon job. Diving a bit deeper a day, and learning about some often-used more in depth features like "responsive" or flexbox, another day. For a software developer/engineer that builds backends, CSS really isn't that hard. That's not to say a basic CSS set and some explanation like in TLA, isn't useful. It's my pet-peeve that in software development, I'm convinced we should understand the stuff that we work with. Not all, and certainly not everything in great detail, but enough to know where to find the info and details when working with it. From sysadmin to the concepts of cryptography and from accessibility to how an OS writes stuff to disk. Even if that means constantly learning.
  - stephenlf 1y ago
    > The solution is quite obvious then too: learn some. That’s the whole point of this article. CSS is a huge language. Where do you even begin? This article is a perfect response to that very natural question.
    - noduerme 1y ago
      It really isn't a huge language. It's not even a language. There are some basic principles, but it's pretty much a bunch of pick-and-choose attributes for HTML that you can wrap up into "classes". I've worked heavily with it for 25 years and I still basically just screw around until something looks good. There is no point to this article. This is the most common kind of trash you can find if you type in "minimum css"... it's not even that. Come on. Have integrity in your work and learn how to do it.

sebtron 1y ago

> who are the people who are trying to make a bare bones web page but just struggling with `max-width` Anyone making a personal website?

noduerme 1y ago
If you want to make a personal website, you have two routes: Use a template thing like wordpress, with a GUI, or learn at least a bare minimum of HTML, CSS and probably some Javascript, as well as how to set up a server. What's offered in this article is not very useful to making a personal website... it's like if you wanted to bake a cake, and you read an article saying that frosting is made from sugar and butter. This isn't news and it's it's not particularly useful to baking your cake either. Just to like, follow up: 99% of the point of making your personal website is, like, making it fucking personal which is to say that you put your own time and energy into learning something in the process. Copy/pasting random CSS from the web is not learning. Also, copy/pasting this particular CSS is not even showing the slightest bit of interest. So consider: Why would anyone care about your personal website if you don't care enough to learn how to make it, you know, personal by actually learning a tiny bit about the art you're trying to put into practice? And none of this even starts to explain why this junk would be popular here. There are some brilliant CSS hacks in the wild that deserve attention, but this is sub-par even for child's play that might teach you how to do something useful. It's not even a lesson. It's just some crap you don't understand that you might copy and paste, with almost no explanation.

monadgonad 1y ago

Me. I'm a backend developer who occasionally wants to make a web frontend for a side-project but knows essentially no CSS. The solutions are not "well understood" by me because I know no CSS.

berkes 1y ago
> occasionally wants to make a web frontend In that case I'd say the problem is exactly what you state > knows essentially no CSS The solution is quite obvious then too: learn some. It's not hard. Understanding the basics is a afternoon job. Diving a bit deeper a day, and learning about some often-used more in depth features like "responsive" or flexbox, another day. For a software developer/engineer that builds backends, CSS really isn't that hard. That's not to say a basic CSS set and some explanation like in TLA, isn't useful. It's my pet-peeve that in software development, I'm convinced we should understand the stuff that we work with. Not all, and certainly not everything in great detail, but enough to know where to find the info and details when working with it. From sysadmin to the concepts of cryptography and from accessibility to how an OS writes stuff to disk. Even if that means constantly learning.
- stephenlf 1y ago
  > The solution is quite obvious then too: learn some. That’s the whole point of this article. CSS is a huge language. Where do you even begin? This article is a perfect response to that very natural question.
  - noduerme 1y ago
    It really isn't a huge language. It's not even a language. There are some basic principles, but it's pretty much a bunch of pick-and-choose attributes for HTML that you can wrap up into "classes". I've worked heavily with it for 25 years and I still basically just screw around until something looks good. There is no point to this article. This is the most common kind of trash you can find if you type in "minimum css"... it's not even that. Come on. Have integrity in your work and learn how to do it.