Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to bypass learning CSS?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–59 of 59 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to bypass learning CSS?

#51

Post by toastal »

jinct wrote: post #28

To learn just enough CSS for your MVP: Understand the box model Understand flex box basics Understand padding and margin Experiment with laying out simple elements on a single HTML file (where you can iterate more quickly), then when you have what you want, make those same changes in your React app If you spend one hour on each of these, you may be surprised by how capable you’ve become. The rest, as others have said…

Depending on browser support, there's a good likelihood just skipping a lot of these things for CSS grid could be a shortcut. As a bonus, gap for gutters is widely supported and takes away a lot of the headaches of float and flex-based grid systems.

Re: Ask HN: How to bypass learning CSS?

#52

Post by daxfohl »

bspammer wrote: post #49
Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #25

CSS doesn't have to be annoying or boring. Understand the Box Model https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_... I find that a lot of front end developers don't really understand the box model and everything they do is just learned patterns. Once you understand how things are laid out then it becomes so much more fun and easy. Now the hard part is the actual design but I wouldn't say that's your jo…

Just reading the first section, I'm already annoyed and frustrated. It does the same thing as every CSS explanation I've ever read of explaining what but not why . Things that confuse me immediately: * The article starts by saying there are two types of boxes. OK. Boxes have an inner and an outer display type. Already confused. Is this in addition to the two previously mentioned types? Does a box have the following:…

Combat the ADHD by trying it, fidgeting with things and see what happens. That's one nice thing about css is you can test things out and get immediate feedback. You'll learn more from fifteen minutes of directed playing around with it than from any amount of reading.

Don't let yourself create a mental barrier there. Just force yourself to spend a few minutes every day trying new things and you'll be fairly fluent in a couple weeks. It should be pretty painless and it's a skill that will be useful for the foreseeable future.

Re: Ask HN: How to bypass learning CSS?

#53

Post by gompertz »

daxfohl wrote: post #52
bspammer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just reading the first section, I'm already annoyed and frustrated. It does the same thing as every CSS explanation I've ever read of explaining what but not why . Things that confuse me immediately: * The article starts by saying there are two types of boxes. OK. Boxes have an inner and an outer display type. Already confused. Is this in addition to the two previously mentioned types? Does a box have the following:…

Combat the ADHD by trying it, fidgeting with things and see what happens. That's one nice thing about css is you can test things out and get immediate feedback. You'll learn more from fifteen minutes of directed playing around with it than from any amount of reading. Don't let yourself create a mental barrier there. Just force yourself to spend a few minutes every day trying new things and you'll be fairly fluent in…

Well said. It took me years to understand this. You don't need to understand every last detail in a book to get to work. I'm a great C and C++ programmer, but when it comes to web based applications I would say I'm merely better at knowing where to fidget with the code first, rather than knowing what's really going on.

Train yourself where the best places to massage the code are and most solutions can be found within minutes.

Re: Ask HN: How to bypass learning CSS?

#55

Post by miiiiiike »

bspammer wrote: post #49
Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #25

CSS doesn't have to be annoying or boring. Understand the Box Model https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_... I find that a lot of front end developers don't really understand the box model and everything they do is just learned patterns. Once you understand how things are laid out then it becomes so much more fun and easy. Now the hard part is the actual design but I wouldn't say that's your jo…

Just reading the first section, I'm already annoyed and frustrated. It does the same thing as every CSS explanation I've ever read of explaining what but not why . Things that confuse me immediately: * The article starts by saying there are two types of boxes. OK. Boxes have an inner and an outer display type. Already confused. Is this in addition to the two previously mentioned types? Does a box have the following:…

Copy and paste your bullet points into Google and you’re 99.5% of the way to getting concise answers to your questions.

“Work was hard so I quit.” isn’t going to generate much sympathy from the people who put in the effort to learn this stuff.

If you really want to understand CSS, read “CSS: The Definitive Guide” cover to cover. I’m not kidding. Take notes and write code using every single property. Read the Flexbox and Grid chapters TWICE.

Oh, and if you’re upset about the distinction between inline and block elements just wait until you hear about the inline-block display value.. Which, coincidentally, will answer your question about inline heights.

Every browser on the planet makes use of CSS. Every non-trivial website uses CSS. It works. It’s not a toy. Approach it as you would any other advanced technology.

Post reply on HN