When first getting into CSS, I started by splitting the styles across 3 basic sheets (excluding print): layout, graphics and type. Lately, (especially after reading this article:http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080515/css-organization-and-efficiency/) that pattern began to change.
I’ve found that I now tend to use the following split: reset & site defaults, specific layout & graphics (generally organised by structural element), type (grouped by selectors rather than element), forms and tables. In particular, the method of grouping by declaration rather than structure (i.e: all elements that are bold grouped together) has facilitated great benefits – while my earlier practice of splitting layout from graphics seemed counter-productive. I try to use as little markup as possible, preferring to style elements themselves, and strive to implement as few classes and ids as possible.
Anyway, I’ve recently made the transition from hobbyist to professional (ahem) and am learning to work with a co-worker. Strangely, we have managed to coalesce our opinions regarding PHP implementation, choice of JS library etc. etc – but CSS of all things is proving to be something of a battle ground. The real sticking point is how we organise our stylesheets. I think this is largely owing to the same problem that plagues art – since it’s subjective everything is equal under the sun – so how do you decide on the best strategy in this instance?
So, I’m posting this to garner some CSS stylesheet maintenance wisdom, and any office anecdotes people have of working in teams on code.
