
get it? its a cascade of sheets,...??? eh,.. nerdy joke
CSS is a wonderful thing, but it was one those things your friends who know more then you would bring up ( this is in the late ninety’s ) and you would roll your eyes claiming tables were easier. Truth be told, i am not good with browser side situations and code – except for flash – which isn’t really a browser side code as its simply a flash app. Anyways, i hated css for the longest time. And to be clear, we are talking about Cascading Style Sheets . The great and magical thing about CSS is the ability to style sections of the site/theme so it can easily and quickly be changed later, grouping your different parts by names ( class or a id variable with in almost any standard html tag like p,a,img,div,table DO NOT USE TABLES ). The hard part about css, is learning how to use it, and worst of all, manipulate it.
When i learn things, i usually find source documentation and keep it bookmarked and constantly read it. This is a common method and part of most peoples ‘learning’ routines. The most annoying part of using css, is the fact that most browsers on different OS’s have there own ‘default’ rules. This can be a serious, huge pain for some of us. Especially me, as i am very dim-witted but pretend to act smart. I actually have a hard time putting things together.
Luckily, its not as bad as i said it was, but it maybe your first conclusion if looking at css for the first time. Fortunately, for the default rules, its pretty much MSIE ( Microsoft Internet Explorer ) against everyone else. And then there is the occasional freak attack cause by the small percent of users who prefer running safari and own a mac. The rest usually will be fine, as long as both MSIE and the rest are looking good. Unfourtanatly, i can’t debug css issues with safari on mac ( even though safari on windows will look fine ) mainly because i don’t own a mac. A lot of people are in this situation, especially when just starting out. I should own a mac for this one reason… i don’t . Its only cause i normally can’t afford anything better then one computer. The best solution is finding someone who does and either ask to come over and borrow there computer, or call them and ask them to tell you what you see. Better to be able to actually use the machine, that way you can check the source.
A lot of people stress on backward compatability. This dosent make sense to me. Windows xp and up all automatically update, including forcing MSIE to update. This is presumable on mac as well ( correct me if i am wrong ). It’s possible a user may not update firefox, but it will usually force an update after so many are skipped. I am not sure about this on safari , opera, or chrome. I have sites that run 6k+ daily visitors, and in that, none of them run ie version 6 or less. its all seven, and now with eight being out, you see more and more of that. Most users run msie7 and more and more are running msie8, eventually all will. Thats a fact – if your on the internet, you cant browse a site until your mostly up to date. The biggest stress is MSIE7 and safari on mac, and then the easy peasy is firefox and the rest. I have MSIE8 and it always parses the css perfectly, as firefox does. I have a lot of faith in MSIE8 . But this can change, it has in the past. all of a sudden there browser stops doing something. Not until you put some random word into some random css class that practicly makes no sense. But it will work then, and the change is always written in MS’s doc’s on line, but who wants to waid through it – i would rather wait until it breaks and fix it then. Bad way to work, but easier then reading a ten page short story on a single change in MSIE css rules.
If you ever herd of a css ‘crack’ or ‘hack’ , thats what it is reffering to. In the midst of designing a site, you get to a point where you stand back and mutter ‘done?’ . You open MSIE and go to the site, and ,… well. now the hacking begins. And really, a css hack can be anything, and often is changed or eventually made obsolete ( due to browser upgrades/changes ). I don’t call it css hacks. its just working or not.
Looking back on the year, i remember getting this laptop i have now and it being loaded with vista. This was the first time i had a chance to use vista. needless to say, the vista experience was saddening, and costed a lot in loss work and annoying times. Nothing more aggravating then spending hours installing and uninstalling operating systems trying to find a set up that would work ( other then using OEM vista ).
With windows seven, there was this last year of the free beta testing license give aways. I nabbed one and was happy to get to install it. I did, and at this point in MS’s development of seven, it was already at god status. They released it a few months later, but i got a free license for a year, and coupon for when i do buy it. In any case, it came with Internet Explorer Eight, which in its beta form sucked ass. but there was one noticable difference. The Developer Tools!!!!
Holy cow, it has a firebug written write into the freaking program! how ingenious! and a clear cache button! Firefox dosent even have that ( though there is a short code, and MSIE dosent have that ).. To make matters even greater, you can parse as MSIE7!
For those of you who don’t know what FireBug is, and learning css is really important to you, go get the firebug plugin for firefox.
The wonderful thing about firebug is you can change the css rule-set and see the changes as they would appear if actually changed. This is great for learning, and super nice when editing a wordpress theme, or your myspace layout
I would say 99% of my css knowledge came from using firebug.
The one downside is that it only runs on firefox. The upside is that firefox rules are about the same when it comes to opera, safari, and chrome. If you don’t have IE8, get it now – and inside it ( Tools->Developer Tools ) you will find a firebug tool ( and the ability to parse with IE7 rules ). And now you can edit css rulesets for your sites on multiple platforms easily and quickly