Comments on: CSS Based Design

By: saralk

saralk — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:13:16 +0000

I think that the Zen Garden is only meant to be a proof of concept, and not a benchmark for how websites should be designed.

And, WOW, Lobster is right, the preview thing is awesome.

By: Chris Boulton

Chris Boulton — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 11:56:40 +0000

Are you using Internet Explorer? I don’t have the same problem on Firefox - it’s pretty smooth. I’m guessing it is just an issue with javascript and rewriting the contents of a div whenever a keypress is made.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 11:45:29 +0000

Thinking about it I see your point about images/headers… though I think deprecating the tag totally seems a bit odd; it depends how the tag can replace it.hopefully it’ll work out but I’m not entirely confident in the W3C any more since the disappearance of the ‘target’ attribute in XHTML which leaves no alternative but javascript, which leaves a lot to be desired :/

On the subject of javascript, this previewy thing doesn’t like me writing etc… it removes the tag and goes all flickery when I type.

Sorry for the bumpage

By: Chris Boulton

Chris Boulton — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 05:09:55 +0000

Yeah, this post was listed in the “Possibly Related” section on the right of my menu/template posts I made yesterday.

Light, I see that you FINALLY set up your Gravatar!

By: Matt Light

Matt Light — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 04:32:10 +0000

Wow, when I first saw this article a couple hours ago, I thought it had just been posted. I was trying to figure out how you could say that you only recently started adopting div tags. Now I see Lobster brought a 11 month old post from the dead

By: Chris Boulton

Chris Boulton — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 22:27:17 +0000

I agree with you there on some of the point’s you’ve mentioned Lobster - such as on the accessability. However with the images, in XHTML 2.0 the tag is being depreciated in favour of doing things with CSS and using the tag instead. The point of using images as headings means that those with a non-compliant or text based browser will (if it’s been done right) be able to see the text instead of the image.

CSS 3.0 is on the way soon, and it should be interesting to see how people begin using the new features in it..

By: Lobster

Lobster — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:07:02 +0000

It’s interesting that you link to the CSS Zen Garden (missing an http:// by the way). Okay, there’s probably nobody who wouldn’t mention it in an article about the potential of CSS, but in my view there’s a big gap between what the Zen Garden could have become and what it actually is.

See, a huge majority of the styles on there are classic examples of bad CSS design. To start off with, the designers throw all the headings out of the window (and some of the text too for some) and replacing them with images, completely defeating the point of all the semantics. Most then set fixed-size fonts which (in IE at least) destroys all hope of accessibility. Finally, after the markup has been put in such a nice order, the whole lot gets absolutely positioned, so they really might as well have made one big image and set the following styles:

html
{
background: url(’page.jpg’);
}
body
{
display: none;
}

Of course it’s not just the designers’ fault, the developers of the Garden itself started it by making fixed markup and assuming that it was semantically suitable for any kind of design. The idea that the two processes can be completely independent is absurd; the markup still contains the semantics of the page, and in fact we really shouldn’t be claiming to use CSS for ‘layout’ at all. First we lay the markup out, then we adjust how it appears and flows.

By the way I love this preview feature. Look! I can see my post as if it were already a comment! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ok I’m done.

By: addy

addy — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 08:19:56 +0000

�A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.�
� Dwight D. Eisenhower, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953