This is a story about CSS—what it is, how it came to be (quite recently), how we got stuck with something that annoys us all, the evolution and sometimes bizarre changes it's experienced, and its bleak future as the lone styling interface for the world wide web. Here's a rough outline of what I'd like to share:
A look at what came before CSS, early challengers and dissenters
An exploration of a theory about why we have such a love/hate relationship with CSS (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=peter+griffin+css+gif) based a lot around what we know about good programming practices, and based in part on Rich Hickey's "Simple Made Easy" talk as well as Einstein's "spooky action at a distance". Much of this will be pulled from this post of mine, then expanded on: http://rhodesjason.com/blog/004_canteven-style-sheets.html
A look at the innovation CSS has experienced in the past few years, how CSS3 has felt somewhat stagnant, compare it to JavaScript's ES5 -> ES6 journey, and some thoughts about CSS's choice to pursue things like animation instead of fixing some of what makes it unreliable and "spooky"
A walkthrough of some existing alternative styling methods, including CSS-based conventions like BEM, SMACSS, and OOCSS, tools for rebuilding CSS rules with something like Rework, and some totally experimental ideas around CSS subsets. I'll share why I think these methods are becoming popular and why we should absolutely encourage them!
I'll close with a challenge to push back against CSS, challenge it, change and improve it, and experiment with alternatives rather than accepting it as-is and defending it just because it's all we have.
Speaker Bio
Jason used to play with HyperCard a lot during middle school classes and now he writes java scripts during basically all the different times. He lives in Baltimore, works on SparkPost.com, organizes and leads Baltimore NodeSchool, creates dumb little GIFs at meatspac.es, and makes educational video series for tutsplus.
The Birth, Life, and Death of Cascading Style Sheets, Parts I and II
The story you'd like to tell
This is a story about CSS—what it is, how it came to be (quite recently), how we got stuck with something that annoys us all, the evolution and sometimes bizarre changes it's experienced, and its bleak future as the lone styling interface for the world wide web. Here's a rough outline of what I'd like to share:
Speaker Bio
Jason used to play with HyperCard a lot during middle school classes and now he writes java scripts during basically all the different times. He lives in Baltimore, works on SparkPost.com, organizes and leads Baltimore NodeSchool, creates dumb little GIFs at meatspac.es, and makes educational video series for tutsplus.