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Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

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Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#22
post #13
post #3

I'm just gonna say it. We don't need another "lightweight, responsive, modern" CSS framework. It's a solved problem.

I like fast, small web pages because not everyone has a broadband connection at all times. Can you tell me what other mature, tested, well-supported CSS frameworks have a feature set that large in less than 25% of Bootstrap's size?

https://purecss.io/

http://getskeleton.com/

https://tachyons.io/

https://bulma.io/

https://picnicss.com/

https://www.muicss.com/

[EDIT] - BTW, I mean this with less snark and more did-you-know-all-these-existed? I knew of purecss & skeleton (and I've forgotten a few, because it used to be very common to see these), and I've seen bulma before but some others were new to me (and I favorited them to give a try on some random project)

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#23
The more web development I’ve done the more I’ve swung back to just writing CSS myself rather than depending on CSS frameworks; I’ve ended up seeing these less as ways to accelerate development for a team that is skilled at frontend, but instead as a way for people who don’t like styling or have little experience in frontend development/low design sense to style things reasonably.

But I keep seeing frontend frameworks on HN - am I/teams like mine that include at least one person fluent enough in CSS to write reasonable style sheets/styled components, just not the target audience? Or do other experienced frontend devs swear by UI frameworks like these for reasons I haven’t grasped yet? If so, why?

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#24
post #15

I prefer https://tachyons.io/ as a CSS framework that avoids any pre-styled themes and just provides building blocks. Great for SPA/component UIs.

Anyone interested in this approach may also like Tailwind https://tailwindcss.com/

Tailwind is absolutely fantastic. I can code CSS 2-3 times faster and I no longer hate doing it.

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#25
post #23

The more web development I’ve done the more I’ve swung back to just writing CSS myself rather than depending on CSS frameworks; I’ve ended up seeing these less as ways to accelerate development for a team that is skilled at frontend, but instead as a way for people who don’t like styling or have little experience in frontend development/low design sense to style things reasonably. But I keep seeing frontend framework…

One of the sad realities of the web was proliferation of bootstrap everywhere. IIRC it was intended as a prototyping framework at first.

But even sadder is grid frameworks based on the CSS grid popping up :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRfFEcj3-Q

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#26
post #13
post #3

I'm just gonna say it. We don't need another "lightweight, responsive, modern" CSS framework. It's a solved problem.

I like fast, small web pages because not everyone has a broadband connection at all times. Can you tell me what other mature, tested, well-supported CSS frameworks have a feature set that large in less than 25% of Bootstrap's size?

The first question to ask should not be "what framework should I use?" it should be "do I really need a framework?"

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#27
post #23

The more web development I’ve done the more I’ve swung back to just writing CSS myself rather than depending on CSS frameworks; I’ve ended up seeing these less as ways to accelerate development for a team that is skilled at frontend, but instead as a way for people who don’t like styling or have little experience in frontend development/low design sense to style things reasonably. But I keep seeing frontend framework…

Frameworks are handy for — you know — framing. They’re a helpful scaffold provided your project aligns with their model. This applies to UI framework, app frameworks, whatever.

Why do these not “accelerate your work”? Maybe because you’re taking work that’s differently shaped. Maybe original, custom styling is an important part of what you’re selling. That’s great.

But it’s not nearly true for everybody. And so a lot of people use frameworks like this to get the styling where it needs to be, so that they can focus on whatever other thing they’re really selling.

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#28
post #23

The more web development I’ve done the more I’ve swung back to just writing CSS myself rather than depending on CSS frameworks; I’ve ended up seeing these less as ways to accelerate development for a team that is skilled at frontend, but instead as a way for people who don’t like styling or have little experience in frontend development/low design sense to style things reasonably. But I keep seeing frontend framework…

We’ve ended up with our own, not so much a framework but a set of commonly used mixins and set of SASS files - some of which might even be empty placeholders - that stop us trying to work out the same issues over and over.

I treat it a bit like adding packages with NPM, just adding the small bits we need to achieve certain things.

When I’ve tried to use proper frameworks before they have always been too opinionated and I would find myself working around them.

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#29
post #25
post #23

The more web development I’ve done the more I’ve swung back to just writing CSS myself rather than depending on CSS frameworks; I’ve ended up seeing these less as ways to accelerate development for a team that is skilled at frontend, but instead as a way for people who don’t like styling or have little experience in frontend development/low design sense to style things reasonably. But I keep seeing frontend framework…

One of the sad realities of the web was proliferation of bootstrap everywhere. IIRC it was intended as a prototyping framework at first. But even sadder is grid frameworks based on the CSS grid popping up :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRfFEcj3-Q

For 'business CRUD' interfaces, choosing something like Bootstrap is a good option.

Record lists and entry edit forms etc generally don't need a designers eye.

Re: Spectre.css – A Lightweight, Responsive and Modern CSS Framework

#30

I prefer https://tachyons.io/ as a CSS framework that avoids any pre-styled themes and just provides building blocks. Great for SPA/component UIs.

I really do hate to be the guy this guy, but after having to maintain a website a contractor built in Tachyons, I've hated it with a passion of [insert hyperbolic phrase here].

What do you love about it/what am I missing? For me it felt like a tutorial on the most egregious CSS/dom anti-patterns, and I haven't been able to get past it.

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