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Hand Coding A Personal Website

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Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#2
Nice tutorial, I just disagree on two small points.

First, there are very sound arguments for not using CSS preprocessors [1].

Second, for a website that you own, using ".htaccess" is discouraged for performances reasons. The Apache 2.4 docs [2] say:

"You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any directive that you can include in a .htaccess file is better set in a Directory block, as it will have the same effect with better performance."

[1] http://blog.millermedeiros.com/the-problem-with-css-pre-proc... [2] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/htaccess.html

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#3
post #2

Nice tutorial, I just disagree on two small points. First, there are very sound arguments for not using CSS preprocessors [1]. Second, for a website that you own, using ".htaccess" is discouraged for performances reasons. The Apache 2.4 docs [2] say: "You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any dir…

The benefit of having some (any) facility to be able to write non vendor prefix/semantic infested CSS and to have nesting take care of an otherwise entirely unmaintainable flat CSS selector soup so far outweights any drawback that whatever argument you'll contrieve to construct against CSS preprocessors is essentially null, nill and invalid.

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#4
Having written pages, by hand, for ages now (like 15 years or so), I recently took this to a new level. I'm now hosting my site on my own hand coded webserver and no other server in front (please don't make me explain).

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#5
post #2

Nice tutorial, I just disagree on two small points. First, there are very sound arguments for not using CSS preprocessors [1]. Second, for a website that you own, using ".htaccess" is discouraged for performances reasons. The Apache 2.4 docs [2] say: "You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any dir…

I can't agree with the first. Most of the arguments from the quoted post are the result of bad practice with preprocessing, not preprocessing itself. For example, the "Dumb code duplication is dumb" example is just someone writing things badly. It should have been written as:

  .error-default, .error-special { @include error; }
  .error-special { background-color: #fcc; }
Similar arguments can be made for most of the other points. The nesting part for example seems to imply that you'd write in LESS/SASS etc, then maintain the post-processed CSS - whereas obviously you'd be maintaining the pre-processed files.

Not convinced, personally.

Disclosure: I actively develop a CSS framework built explicitly around the functionality of preprocessors.

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#6
post #2

Nice tutorial, I just disagree on two small points. First, there are very sound arguments for not using CSS preprocessors [1]. Second, for a website that you own, using ".htaccess" is discouraged for performances reasons. The Apache 2.4 docs [2] say: "You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any dir…

The reasons not to use preprocessors set out in that article are generally arguments against using one without understanding what it's actually doing. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing - poorly written SASS code can build a nightmare forest of styles that get out of hand quickly, slow the client down, and cascade in strange and wonderful ways - but that isn't a reason not to use it. It's a reason to learn it.

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#7
post #2

Nice tutorial, I just disagree on two small points. First, there are very sound arguments for not using CSS preprocessors [1]. Second, for a website that you own, using ".htaccess" is discouraged for performances reasons. The Apache 2.4 docs [2] say: "You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any dir…

How many Billions of visitors you need, until a local .htaccess slows down your Website significant ?

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#8
Nice. I built websites as a teen and had my own webserver, but within time my interests changed more to other subjects. But as of late, I've been thinking about making a personal website again, instead of using a variety of services (github, flickr, tumblr etc.).

This really helped me to spark my motivation again, thanks!

Re: Hand Coding A Personal Website

#10
post #4

Having written pages, by hand, for ages now (like 15 years or so), I recently took this to a new level. I'm now hosting my site on my own hand coded webserver and no other server in front (please don't make me explain).

Please DO explain. I'm going to guess at a PHP based site?

I couldn't imagine trying to run my personal website (https://github.com/Imdsm/PersonalWebsite/) on a hand-written web server and database server, though if I did that would be an achievement.

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