Enduring CSS
Enduring CSS
Architect and maintain large-scale CSS codebases
About the Book
This is a book to deal with writing CSS for large-scale, rapidly changing web projects and applications.
This isn't actually a book about writing CSS, as in the stuff inside the curly braces. It's a book about the organisation and architecture of CSS; the parts outside the braces. It's the considerations that can be happily ignored on smaller projects but actually become the most difficult part of writing CSS in larger projects.
Here are some of the topics covered in the book:
- The problems of CSS at scale: specificity, the cascade and styles intrinsically tied to element structure.
- The shortfalls of conventional approaches to scaling CSS.
- The ECSS methodology and the problems it solves.
- How to develop consistent and enforceable selector naming conventions with ECSS.
- How to organise project structure to more easily isolate and decouple visual components.
- How to handle state changes in the DOM with ARIA or override selectors.
- How to apply ECSS to web applications and visual modules.
- Considerations of CSS tooling and processing: Sass/PostCSS and linting.
- Addressing the practicalities of using potentially problematic HTML elements.
- Addressing the notion of CSS selector speed with hard data and browser representative insight.
About the Author
Bundles that include this book
Reader Testimonials
Jose Menor
Front-end developer
Are you dealing with css in a big app? Do yourself a favour and buy Enduring CSS
Dan Gamble
Lead Front-end Developer
Having bought ECSS just over a year ago I've used it in every project, no matter how big or small. It's greatly improved the productivity of myself and the team I've implemented it with. It has also been very easy to onboard everyone with.
Table of Contents
- About the author
- Thanks
- Preface
-
Chapter 1. Enduring CSS
- Introduction
- Defining the problem
- Solve your own problems
-
Chapter 2. The problems of CSS at scale
- Specificity
- Markup structure tied to selectors
- The cascade
- Summary
-
Chapter 3. Implementing received wisdom
- On OOCSS
- SMACSS
- BEM
- Summary
-
Chapter 4. Introducing the ECSS methodology
- Defining terminology
- The problems ECSS solves
- Embracing Repetition
- Summary
-
Chapter 5. File organisation and naming conventions
- Project organisation
- Naming classes and selectors with ECSS
- Summary
-
Chapter 6. Dealing with state changes in ECSS
- How ECSS used to handle state change
- Switching to WAI-ARIA
- ARIA attributes as CSS selectors
- Summary
-
Chapter 7. Applying ECSS to your web site or application
- Applying ECSS to logic modules
- Applying ECSS to visual modules
- Organising Modules, their Components and naming files
- Working with generated content from a CMS
- ECSS and global styles
- Summary
-
Chapter 8. The Ten Commandments of Sane Style Sheets
- Why the ten commandments?
- 1. Thou shalt have a single source of truth for all key selectors
- 2. Thou shalt not nest, unless thou art nesting media queries or overrides
- 3. Thou shalt not use ID selectors, even if thou thinkest thou hast to
- 4. Thou shalt not write vendor prefixes in the authoring style sheets
- 5. Thou shalt use variables for sizing, colours and z-index
- 6. Thou shalt always write rules mobile first (avoid max-width)
- 7. Use mixins sparingly (and avoid @extend)
- 8. Thou shalt comment all magic numbers and browser hacks
- 9. Thou shalt not place inline images in the authoring style sheets
- 10. Thou shalt not write complicated CSS when simple CSS will work just as well
- Summary
-
Chapter 9. Tooling for an ECSS approach
- CSS requisites for CSS processors
- Building CSS from authoring style sheets
- Optimisation
- Summary
-
The closing curly brace
- Resources
-
Appendix 1: CSS selector performance
- Testing selector speed
- Good CSS architecture practices
- What difference does style bloat make?
- Performance inside the brackets
- Summary
-
Appendix 2: Browser representatives on CSS performance
- TL;DR
- Browser representatives on CSS performance
- Should we worry about CSS selectors?
- What about JavaScript
- Dealing with CSS performance
- Summary
Authors have earned$9,880,448writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
C++ Best Practices
Jason TurnerLevel up your C++, get the tools working for you, eliminate common problems, and move on to more exciting things!
- #2
Functional Design and Architecture
Alexander GraninSoftware Design in Functional Programming, Design Patterns and Practices, Methodologies and Application Architectures. How to build real software in Haskell with less efforts and low risks. The first complete source of knowledge.
- #3
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
- #4
Mastering STM32
Carmine NovielloWith more than 600 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the first guide around that introduces the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL.
- #5
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
- #6
C++20
Rainer GrimmC++20 is the next big C++ standard after C++11. As C++11 did it, C++20 changes the way we program modern C++. This change is, in particular, due to the big four of C++20: ranges, coroutines, concepts, and modules.
- #7
Atomic Kotlin
Bruce Eckel and Svetlana IsakovaFor both beginning and experienced programmers! From the author of the multi-award-winning Thinking in C++ and Thinking in Java together with a member of the Kotlin language team comes a book that breaks the concepts into small, easy-to-digest "atoms," along with exercises supported by hints and solutions directly inside IntelliJ IDEA!
- #8
Invest In Digital Health - The Medical Futurist's Guide
Dr. Bertalan MeskoArtificial Intelligence and Digital Health are booming. In this book, we explain why now it's a good time to invest in Digital Health and give recommendations on where to invest by looking at the top 24 technological trends we find the most promising.
- #9
I am a Software Engineer and I am in Charge
Alexis Monville and Michael DoyleI am a Software Engineer and I am in Charge is a real-world, practical book that helps you increase your impact and satisfaction at work no matter who you work with.
In the book, we will follow Sandrine, a fictional character who learns to think in a new way enabling her to take a different course of action.
- #10
The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book
Andriy BurkovEverything you really need to know in Machine Learning in a hundred pages.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
The Future of Digital Health
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy and how technology giants such as Amazon or Google want to conquer... - #3
Cisco CCNA 200-301 Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du guide préparation à l'examen de certification Cisco CCNA 200-301. - #4
CCDE Practical Studies (All labs)
3 Books
CCDE lab - #5
"The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++"
2 Books
Get my books "The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++" in a bundle. The first book gives you the details you should know about the C++ standard library; the second one dives deeper into concurrency with modern C++. In sum, you get more than 600 pages full of modern C++ and about 250 source files presenting the standard library... - #6
Modern Management Made Easy
3 Books
Read all three Modern Management Made Easy books. Learn to manage yourself, lead and serve others, and lead the organization. - #7
Vagrant Ansible
2 Books
Unveil the power of Ansible and Vagrant with this bundle at a special price. You'll have everything you need to get started with Vagrant - learn the basics and how to create your virtual development environments, using Ansible as provisioner! About Vagrant Cookbook Vagrant Cookbook is a complete guide to get started with Vagrant and create your... - #8
Abandon Your Job - Leaving the Rat Race with Python
8 Books
Now, get all the great Python and Freelancing books from finxter.com in one single bundle!Coffee Break Python - All Python BasicsCoffee Break Python Workbook - Practice the basics of PythonCoffee Break Python Mastery Workouts - Practice advanced Python conceptsCoffee Break Python Slicing - All about SlicingCoffee Break Python NumPy - Get started... - #9
Programming with Ease
3 Books
Alle drei Bände der Serie Programming with Ease in einem Paket. Darin findest du alles, was ich dir zu den wichtigsten Phasen der Softwareentwicklung im Hinblick auf Clean Code Development für langfristig hohe Produktivität sagen kann.Im Band Slicing findest du die Anforderungsanalyse im Rahmen eines iterativ-inkrementellen Vorgehensmodells aus... - #10
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming...
