syntax Archives - CSS-Tricks

Resilient, Declarative, Contextual

# June 25, 2018 By Chris Coyier

Keith J. Grant:

I want to look at three key characteristics of CSS that set it apart from conventional programming languages: it’s resilient; it’s declarative; and it’s contextual. Understanding these aspects of the language, I think, is key to becoming proficient in CSS.

Like HTML, unknown or slightly broken CSS doesn't stop a site in its tracks.
You write something you want to happen in CSS, it happens, and a bunch of related things may happen to. I like Keith's example with font-size. Increase it, and the container will also grow in height without you having to tell it to.
You can't understand what CSS is going to do without understanding the DOM structure it is paired with and the other styles at play.

And it’s my suspicion that developers who embrace these things, and have fully internalized them, tend to be far more proficient in CSS.

Easy to learn, a lifetime to master, as they say.

learning syntax

Combining the Powers of SEM and BIO for Improving CSS

# June 4, 2018 By Ryan Yu

CSS is easy, some might argue, but that "easiness" can cause messy code. This is especially true through power of preprocessors like Sass or Less where, if you aren’t careful, your CSS can become harder to deal with instead of easier. Sass? Harder? This Gist shows a great example of Sass nesting hell.

If your Sass code looks like that, you can definitely improve your code with SEM & BIO, a CSS technique I’ll introduce you to now!

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CSS Basics: The Syntax That Matters & The Syntax That Doesn’t

# February 12, 2018 By Chris Coyier

When you're starting to play around with CSS at the very beginning, like any other language, you have to get used to the syntax. Like any syntax, there are a bunch of little things you need to know. Some characters and the placement of them is very important and required for the CSS to work correctly. And some characters are more about clean looking code and generally followed standards but don't matter for the CSS to work.

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css basics syntax

CSS Ruleset Terminology

# May 3, 2017 By Chris Coyier

I was trying to think of the name of a thing in the CSS vernacular the other day. It made me think we should have some kind of reference right here on CSS-Tricks, as a site with CSS in the title probably ought to have! So, here's the basics.

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syntax terminology