Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
CSS Application Architecture
Search
Sponsored
·
Ship Features Fearlessly
Turn features on and off without deploys. Used by thousands of Ruby developers.
→
Nicolas Gallagher
September 10, 2013
Programming
15
600
CSS Application Architecture
An introduction to the aims and design of the SUIT framework
Nicolas Gallagher
September 10, 2013
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Nicolas Gallagher
See All by Nicolas Gallagher
React Native for web and beyond
necolas
5
1k
Thinking beyond "Scalable CSS"
necolas
14
7k
Making Twitter UI Infrastructure
necolas
14
4.3k
Adaptation and Components
necolas
6
1.4k
HTML5 Boilerplate: past, present, and future
necolas
4
290
The purification of web development
necolas
5
590
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
Automatic Grammar Agreementと Markdown Extended Attributes について
kishikawakatsumi
0
170
AIによるイベントストーミング図からのコード生成 / AI-powered code generation from Event Storming diagrams
nrslib
2
1.7k
CSC307 Lecture 05
javiergs
PRO
0
490
開発者から情シスまで - 多様なユーザー層に届けるAPI提供戦略 / Postman API Night Okinawa 2026 Winter
tasshi
0
170
ZJIT: The Ruby 4 JIT Compiler / Ruby Release 30th Anniversary Party
k0kubun
1
390
Architectural Extensions
denyspoltorak
0
250
例外処理とどう使い分ける?Result型を使ったエラー設計 #burikaigi
kajitack
16
5.8k
ゆくKotlin くるRust
exoego
1
210
コマンドとリード間の連携に対する脅威分析フレームワーク
pandayumi
1
430
AI 駆動開発ライフサイクル(AI-DLC):ソフトウェアエンジニアリングの再構築 / AI-DLC Introduction
kanamasa
11
6k
なぜSQLはAIぽく見えるのか/why does SQL look AI like
florets1
0
400
インターン生でもAuth0で認証基盤刷新が出来るのか
taku271
0
190
Featured
See All Featured
Leveraging LLMs for student feedback in introductory data science courses - posit::conf(2025)
minecr
0
130
Utilizing Notion as your number one productivity tool
mfonobong
2
200
The Art of Programming - Codeland 2020
erikaheidi
57
14k
jQuery: Nuts, Bolts and Bling
dougneiner
65
8.4k
Documentation Writing (for coders)
carmenintech
77
5.2k
The innovator’s Mindset - Leading Through an Era of Exponential Change - McGill University 2025
jdejongh
PRO
1
86
Into the Great Unknown - MozCon
thekraken
40
2.2k
Embracing the Ebb and Flow
colly
88
5k
Scaling GitHub
holman
464
140k
The Straight Up "How To Draw Better" Workshop
denniskardys
239
140k
The SEO Collaboration Effect
kristinabergwall1
0
340
SEO Brein meetup: CTRL+C is not how to scale international SEO
lindahogenes
0
2.3k
Transcript
CSS Application Architecture @necolas
What’s the difference between “Architecture”, “Framework”, and “Toolkit”?
Architecture… a plan about how to structure an application.
None
Framework… an implementation of an architecture that someone can use
as the basis for a working application.
None
Toolkit / Library… a collection of pre-built patterns that can
be assembled to create an application.
None
Making architectural decisions
Client / Agency work
None
I don’t need an architecture!
None
None
Long-lived product work
No clients to blame :(
Find the right problems
Clean code! …no
“Does he ever think of anything rbut himself?”
Dealing with change
Reducing helplessness
Communicate ways of thinking
The freest human is the one who never has to
choose
1. Single responsibility 2. Extension over modification 3. Composition over
inheritance 4. Low coupling 5. Encapsulation 6. Documentation
Home Sidebar Tweetbox .home .sidebar .tweetbox { ... } .home
.footer .listbox { ... } Footer Listbox
Home Sidebar Tweetbox .tweetbox { ... } .listbox { ...
} Footer Listbox
SUIT framework github.com/suitcss/suit
Web Component-y .tweet { /* make it look good */
} .avatar { ... } .text { ... } <article class="tweet"> ... <img class="avatar" ...> ... <p class="text">...</p> </article>
# utilities u-utilityName # components ComponentName ComponentName--modifierName ComponentName-descendantName # js
utilities js-hookName
None
HTML example <article class="Tweet is-favorited"> ... <img class="Avatar Avatar--large" ...>
... <p class="Tweet-text">...</p> </article>
.Tweet { ... } /* Component */ .Tweet.is-favorited { ...
} /* State */ <article class="Tweet is-favorited"> ... <img class="Avatar Avatar--large" ...> ... <p class="Tweet-text">...</p> </article>
.Tweet { ... } /* Component */ .Tweet-text { ...
} /* Descendant */ <article class="Tweet is-favorited"> ... <img class="Avatar Avatar--large" ...> ... <p class="Tweet-text">...</p> </article>
.Avatar { ... } /* Component */ .Avatar--large { ...
} /* Modifier */ <article class="Tweet is-favorited"> ... <img class="Avatar Avatar--large" ...> ... <p class="Tweet-text">...</p> </article>
<article class="Tweet"> <a class="u-linkComplex" ...> ... <b class="u-linkComplex-target"> {user.name} </b>
<span class="u-textMute"> {user.screenname} </span> </a> <p class="Tweet-text u-textBreak">...</p> ... </article>
<article class="Tweet"> <a class="u-linkComplex" ...> ... <b class="u-linkComplex-target"> {user.name} </b>
<span class="u-textMute"> {user.screenname} </span> </a> <p class="Tweet-text u-textBreak">...</p> ... </article>
<article class="Tweet"> {{>partials/tweet_useridentity}} <div class="u-sizeFit"> {{>partials/tweet_text}} {{>partials/tweet_media}} {{>partials/tweet_actions}} </div> </article>
<x-tweet user-fullname="{{user.fullname}}" user-screenname="{{user.screenname}}" user-avatar="{{user.avatar}}" show-actions show-media> {{text}} </x-tweet>
What about RWD?
bostonglobe.com
92 separate @media directives 27 different width values 380 480
481 600 620 639 640 700 750 768 788 799 800 809 810 900 930 931 960 980 1024 1050 1100 1200 1210 1220 1400
Restraint required
@import “component/grid-v1.css”; @import “component/grid-v2.css” (min-width: 20em); @import “component/grid-v3.css” (min-width: 50em);
.v1-u-size1of2 { ... } .v2-u-size1of4 { ... } .v3-u-size1of6 {
... }
Tooling
bower.io
# bower.json { "name": "my-app", "dependencies": { "normalize-css": "~2.1.0", "suit-utils":
"~0.6.0", "suit-button": "~2.0.0”, "suit-grid": "~0.2.0", ... } }
None
CSS preprocessing
Automatic vendor prefixes
.Button { background: linear-gradient(…); }
.Button { background: -webkit-linear-gradient(…); background: linear-gradient(…); }
CSS variables
:root { var-button-bg: linear-gradient(…); } .Button { background: var(button-bg); }
.Button { background: linear-gradient(…); }
Conformance checking
Nothing is perfect Nothing lasts Nothing is finished
Accept transience and imperfection
End