CSSFactory: Real World CSSZenGarden?

Posted At : June 13, 2005 1:35 PM | Posted By : Steve
Related Categories: CSS

I have been a fan of the CSS Zen Garden for a long time. Recently, however, I have noticed that most of the examples are practical for real-world sites where the content changes from page to page and over time. Chris Heilmann has noticed as well.

CSSZenGarden.com is a great example of what CSS can be in an ideal situation. CSS Zen Garden shows what CSS can do for a one-page site whose content never changes. That isn't the world most of us deal with. Most of us deal with sites with multiple pages where the content changes from time to time.

Enter CSS Factory, a real-world alternative to the Zen Garden.

Right now, CSS Factory is just an idea.

While I think it is a great idea, a few points do concern me:

  • Chris mentions changing content order. So long as the order changes only for the content-area and not the template stuff (navigation, pieces that don't change from page to page), I think that is great.
  • Chris mentions changing order using JavaScript with a PHP fallback. I think it would be a lot easier to just use straight PHP for that.
These are minor points, however.

I would also offer some suggestions:
  • Suggest (impose?) a total page-weight of 40K (34K is the suggested page-weight for 10 seconds on 56K modem)
  • Recognize the specialization of talent in the modern web and give separate credit for design and code. This would allow more entries as designers and coders could collaborate on projects.
The second aspect would, I think, help to make the project a success. I know that I couldn't contribute anything to the project by myself as I have no design talent. Similarly, I know many good designers that couldn't contribute to the project because their CSS-skills aren't that advanced.

I certainly hope CSSFactory comes to fruition. If you have any thoughts, let Chris know on his blog.

Good Luck!


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I just googled around. Did CSSFactory ever come off? fyi ... cssvault.com and cssbeauty.com seem to be along the lines of what you said Chris was thinking.
# Posted By Greg Hamer | 12/10/05 12:41 AM
Not so far. The idea seems to have been bogged down in some debates on implementation (including the plausibility of the idea). I am hopeful that the new "One True Layout" idea might be used for CSS Factory and help it come to fruition.
# Posted By | 12/10/05 10:54 PM
The key to making that idea work, is reducing the unique ID's created for every line of HTML code. All these CSS sites make everything overly complicated.



Makes that particular TABLE unique, because it is nested within the "steve" container. There is no need to say:



My example is oversimplifed, but I think the point is made. These crazy naming conventions and ID'ing every HTML forces you to memorize way to much meaningless information.

HTML tables have a place where a header, title, and body, would go. The Example,