Relax. Please don’t try to take notes feverishly. Email — http://sonspring.com/contact Twitter — http://twitter.com/nathansmith Slides — http://slideshare.net/nathansmith/refresh-okc Feel free to email me later, and download these slides as well. These links are at the end, too.
An important discipline when using any framework is striving to understand the underlying language. In other words, use it as a tool – Not a black box. Before we get started, let’s agree: Code is not magic
Veteran “ninjas” master a variety of tools – Not just one. Use a framework as an extension of yourself – Not just as a crutch. BY HAND FRAMEWORK http://imdb.com/title/tt1046173
“Our craft is becoming a commodity and the people in charge don’t care about the quality of the markup, CSS or how short our JavaScript is. What matters is how fast you can get it to market, how many people it reaches and how cheaply it can be built.” Christian Heilmann — developer evangelist at Mozilla http://thinkvitamin.com/code/web-development-is-moving-on-are-you
“Point being, choose your battles wisely. In the time you could argue the relevance of naming conventions like these – I just built a 16-column layout.” Matthew Anderson — designer at OneHub.com http://onehub.com/past/2009/5/13/why-we-chose-960gs-css-framework
Truth be told, I don’t really care if you use the 960 Grid System or not. I tell people who get all emotional over “semantics” (ID & classes have none) that it takes less energy to not use something than to argue about it. It also takes considerably more energy to do research. Being ignorant is blissful and easy! Allow me to clear up a (potential) misconception...
The term “Semantic Web” refers to W3C’s vision of the Web of linked data. Semantic Web technologies enable people to create data stores on the Web, build vocabularies, and write rules for handling data. Linked data are empowered by technologies such as RDF, SPARQL, OWL, and SKOS. — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) CSS gets no — at the Semantic Web party http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb
Don’t be a Luddite (Note: I was with Sass/SCSS) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested – often by destroying mechanized looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life.
The reason I create and use CSS frameworks is because I hate doing mundane tasks repeatedly (yawn). I’d rather be working in JavaScript. FYI: I don’t especially love CSS.
Co-author Tech editor Tech editor jQueryEnlightenment.com oreilly.com/catalog/9780596159788 JavaScriptEnlightenment.com JavaScript books I’ve worked on... All involving Cody Lindley, who has been a JavaScript mentor to me: http://codylindley.com
There are many “dragons” sharing the same public facade in web development: ColdFusion, Java, .NET, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Python... To render in a browser, it all has to pass through HTML. So, I think that front-end is a good place to be! :) Front-end is the opposite of a mythological hydra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra
The premise of the system is ideally suited to rapid prototyping, but it would work equally well when integrated into a production environment. There are printable sketch sheets, design templates, and CSS files that have identical measurements. What’s this whole 960.gs thing all about?
960 SHIps WITH PrINtABlE *.PDf SKeTCH SHeEts, BeCAUSe sOmEtIMeS THe BeSt DEsIGn ToOl IS No ToOl At ALl! WE OfTeN JUMp RIgHT INtO DEsIGn Or CODe SoFtWARe, BUt SKeTCHInG THIngS OUt CAN Be MUCH mOrE eFfICIEnT. WHEn I WOrKED AS AN InFoRmATIoN ARCHItECt, SoMe Of mY BeSt WOrK WAS DOnE SImPlY USInG PeN AnD PApEr.
The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem. If you like, there’s also a 24-column version. “Dogfooding” = When you use your own product NOM, NOM, NOM — I use 960 regularly! :)
The 12-column grid is divided into portions that are 60 pixels wide. The 16-column grid consists of 40 pixel increments. Each column has 10 pixels of margin on the left and right, which create 20 pixel wide gutters between columns. The 24-column grid is also included. It consists of columns 30 pixels wide, with 10 pixel gutters, and a 5 pixel buffer on each side of the container. 12, 16, and 24 columns available by default
Templates available for your weapon of choice... Acorn Fireworks Flash InDesign GIMP Inkscape Illustrator OmniGraffle Photoshop QuarkXPress Visio Expression Design
Michael Phelps following a painted line at the bottom of a pool doesn’t make him a less talented swimmer. http://livinggallery.oneindia.in/main.php?g2_itemId=32903
“Our best practices are killing us” – Nicole Sullivan http://www.slideshare.net/stubbornella/our-best-practices-are-killing-us Three best practice myths... 1. Don’t add any extra elements 2. Don’t add classes 3. Use descendent selectors exclusively
“Our best practices are killing us” – Nicole Sullivan http://www.slideshare.net/stubbornella/our-best-practices-are-killing-us Three best practice myths... 1. Don’t add any extra elements 2. Don’t add classes 3. Use descendent selectors exclusively
Take all “rules” in development with a grain of salt Sensibly revised... 1. Add extra elements sparingly 2. Add classes thoughtfully 3. Avoid descendent selector kludge...
Whither: Grid framework or Responsive design? Doing a fixed-width design using a grid framework is relatively easy. Whereas, doing a responsive design that looks solid at every resolution is multivariate and there is not (yet) an automated, foolproof solution. VS
Pet peeve: “Use tomorrow’s technology, today!” The mere fact we’re even able to use it today makes it today’s technology. As designers and developers, it’s easy to get so caught up in wanting to use the latest and greatest (to a fault) that we forget to try and tackle present-day problems with proven technologies.
How to use Adapt.js = A human-readable config <br/>// Edit to suit your needs.<br/>var ADAPT_CONFIG = {<br/>// Where is your CSS?<br/>path: 'assets/css/',<br/>// false = Only run once, when page first loads.<br/>// true = Change on window resize and page tilt.<br/>dynamic: true,<br/>// Optional callback... myCallback(i, width)<br/>callback: myCallback,<br/>// First range entry is the minimum.<br/>// Last range entry is the maximum.<br/>// Separate ranges by "to" keyword.<br/>range: [<br/>'0px to 760px = mobile.css',<br/>'760px to 980px = 720.css',<br/>'980px to 1280px = 960.css',<br/>'1280px to 1600px = 1200.css',<br/>'1600px to 1920px = 1560.css',<br/>'1920px = fluid.css'<br/>]<br/>};<br/>
How to use Adapt.js = A human-readable config <br/>// Edit to suit your needs.<br/>var ADAPT_CONFIG = {<br/>// Where is your CSS?<br/>path: 'assets/css/',<br/>// false = Only run once, when page first loads.<br/>// true = Change on window resize and page tilt.<br/>dynamic: true,<br/>// Optional callback... myCallback(i, width)<br/>callback: myCallback,<br/>// First range entry is the minimum.<br/>// Last range entry is the maximum.<br/>// Separate ranges by "to" keyword.<br/>range: [<br/>'0px to 760px = mobile.css',<br/>'760px to 980px = 720.css',<br/>'980px to 1280px = 960.css',<br/>'1280px to 1600px = 1200.css',<br/>'1600px to 1920px = 1560.css',<br/>'1920px = fluid.css'<br/>]<br/>};<br/>
60 × 40 pixel JPG @ 70% quality = 908 bytes My son, figuring out that the wind can spin pinwheels 908 bytes http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathansmith/5625332824
Or, as my dad used to tell me as a kid... “Don’t worry about problems smaller than a gnat’s backside.” Note: If the extra HTTP request for JS is a concern, the file size is small enough to just include inline in the document’s .
Not to go all “Ron Burgundy” on you, but... “Kind of a [small] deal” I didn’t set out to write a terse snippet of JavaScript. That’s just how easy the problem was to solve. Seriously though, consider what will be best for your project. Nothing is a magic bullet. Code is just code. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorman:_The_Legend_of_Ron_Burgundy
In fact, here’s a slew of alternatives you might like better. You should explore every option, and choose one that makes sense to you. Or, if nothing seems like a good fit, I’d encourage you to create one! To reiterate: I don’t care if you use 960.gs or Adapt.js
To prevent developers from wasting countless hours on styling dumb form elements Note: I wasted countless hours styling dumb form elements, so you don’t have to! Forms = Quite possibly, the worst part of web design
“Future plans include a tutorial on how to use jQuery to add styling hooks to form elements, since I know from experience that is no cup of tea.” — Source = Me when announcing 960.gs in 2008! — Excuse = New HTML5 elements set me back :) It’s been awhile in the making... http://sonspring.com/journal/960-grid-system
http://sass-lang.com I prefer using Sass to expedite writing CSS I didn’t think I would like Sass, but I do. Oh, and if you’re going to use Sass, use Sass, not SCSS.
Questions? Comments? Hate mail? :) Email — http://sonspring.com/contact Twitter — http://twitter.com/nathansmith Slides — http://slideshare.net/nathansmith/refresh-okc Thanks for attending my presentation! Feel free to email or say “hi” on Twitter.
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