Are CSS Frameworks Really Worth Using

Are CSS Frameworks Really Worth Using?

The main use I have for CSS frameworks is that they tend to force you to think about how you're going to organise you code rather than provide you with indispensable tools for your day to day tasks.

For that reason, I'm a fan of boilerplate rather than things like blueprint as boilerplate tends to focus on how you structure your css stylesheets and imports rather than providing you with a collection of semantically confusing helper classes.

What is the best CSS Framework and are they worth the effort?

CSS 'frameworks' are completely missing the point.

CSS is not like JavaScript, where you can include a base library/framework and then call functions and objects from it to do higher-level work. All a CSS framework can give you is declarative rules: some default browser-rule-reset stuff, some class styles to be forced to author your page to, and layout rules using 'float' and 'clear'. You can write that in a few lines of CSS yourself rather than pulling in the bloat of a hundred framework rules.

The 'grid layout' stuff in particular goes back to the bad old days of mixing your presentation into your markup. 'div class="span-24"' is no better than a table, you'll have to go back in there and change the markup to affect the layout. And all the frameworks I've seen are based around fixed-pixel floated boxes, making it impossible to create a liquid layout accessible on a wide range of window sizes.

It's backwards authoring, of use only for someone too scared to write a CSS rule.

Is it efficient to use css frameworks? If so, which one is best? Or any comparison comments?

Really it depends on your individual skills, preferences, and work style - for some people, it's faster to just work from scratch rather than trying to conform to someone else's design methodology; for others having a basic framework in place speeds things up tremendously. You really just have to try it both ways and see which works out better for you.

The "best" question is rather subjective, I don't think there's a single answer for that.

Should we use a CSS framework ? Are they worth it?

Css frameworks are not like the regular code frameworks/libraries that provide functions that allow you to do your work faster.. it is more like having a starter file, that saves you the time of writing css that you use in all your projects.

Saying that, I really do believe the best way to use a css framework is to look at what css you use more often and create a homegrown css framework. Personally i use the same reset and typography rules for the majority of my projects. I do have a collection of different grids, but really that differs based on the type of project. Not all designs will work with a grid.

Before when I tried to use a pre-built framework, I found myself wasting time removing styles or working around some of the styles from the framework. That is just from my experience with frameworks, I do know people that love working with Blueprint and swear by it.

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