Optimizing CSS

[Tony]

Hi -

I have a really massive stylesheet, and I want to trim it down to a
more reasonable size. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone can recommend
any decent online tutorials (preferred) or maybe a book about the
subject?

Of course, I can Google for "CSS optimization" and other such queries,
but that doesn't necessarily mean the tutorials are any GOOD :) --
Which is why I'm asking your opinions.

Thanx

[Jim Moe]

Tony wrote:

I have a really massive stylesheet, and I want to trim it down to a
more reasonable size. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone can recommend
any decent online tutorials (preferred) or maybe a book about the
subject?

An URL would help.
In general:
1. The large size is often because every conceivable bit of style used by
a site is crammed into one file. Split out those sections that apply to
only a few pages and import those separately.
2. Use the "C" part of CSS, cascading. A lot of redundancy is because a
style is not cascaded for elements and separate classes are created where
none are actually required.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

[Mark Parnell]

> Tony wrote:

I have a really massive stylesheet, and I want to trim it down to a
more reasonable size. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone can recommend
any decent online tutorials (preferred) or maybe a book about the
subject?

I have found http://flumpcakes.co.uk/css/optimiser/ to be useful - the
output generally needs a little bit of tweaking, but it's a great start.

--
Mark Parnell

I give up:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

[Gérard Talbot]

Tony wrote :

Hi -

I have a really massive stylesheet, and I want to trim it down to a
more reasonable size. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone can recommend
any decent online tutorials (preferred) or maybe a book about the
subject?

Of course, I can Google for "CSS optimization" and other such queries,
but that doesn't necessarily mean the tutorials are any GOOD :) --
Which is why I'm asking your opinions.

Thanx

Usually, the mistake people do is not understanding how CSS inheritance
works. So, they over-declare, over-define CSS rules. They also create
classes for everything possible, not understanding again how inheritance
works and when a CSS property is and is not inherited.
Also, they seem to ignore most of the CSS default values of elements.

"Classitis and Divitis
A common error of beginning CSS coders is to use far too many <div> tags
and class attributes (...) Ninety-nine out of a hundred times these
complicated structures are unnecessary."
Web Page Development: best practices
http://developer.apple.com/internet/...estwebdev.html

So, reducing DOM tree depth generally also reduces the need of a complex
stylesheet.
Excellent/recommendable resource is:

Style sheet master class: part 1 - writing perfect style sheets
http://www.richinstyle.com/masterclass/perfection.html
Also good (regarding parsing purposes) is:
Writing Efficient CSS
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs..._Efficient_CSS

Gérard
--
remove blah to email me

[Gérard Talbot]

Tony wrote :

I have a really massive stylesheet, and I want to trim it down to a
more reasonable size. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone can recommend
any decent online tutorials (preferred) or maybe a book about the
subject?

Also:

"Superfluous elements and classes
When starting out with CSS, it's common to make the mistake of using
unnecessary (X)HTML elements, superfluous classes, and extra <div>
elements. This doesn't necessarily mean that the code will be invalid,
but it counteracts one of the reasons of separating structure from
presentation; to get simpler, cleaner markup."
coming from
Developing With Web Standards
Recommendations and best practices
6. CSS
http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/de...dards/css/#css

Gérard
--
remove blah to email me

[Stan Brown]

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 07:17:31 -0500 from Gérard Talbot
<ne***********@gtalbot.org>:

"Classitis and Divitis
A common error of beginning CSS coders is to use far too many <div> tags
and class attributes (...) Ninety-nine out of a hundred times these
complicated structures are unnecessary."
Web Page Development: best practices
http://developer.apple.com/internet/...estwebdev.html

I'm not sure I'd put a lot of faith in anything that page says since
it recommends using tables for layout. No way can that be called
"best practices" IMO.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2.1 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Why We Won't Help You:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/200..._wont_help_you