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²: https://github.com/Base32H/base32h.github.io/blob/master/ass...
Because it really is just HTML with utility classes, you never end up in a situation where you have, say, a "card class" you can't really override without a bunch of `!important`s.
Some time ago I started looking for a new framework, more up to date, at least. The website and GitHub repo for Skeleton hasn't been updated since 2014, so maybe I was missing out on the latest fashions? Doing more ambitious/insane web projects than happened earlier when less experienced, a bigger toolbox was needed. Of course, I had more requirements which were as important as possibly at odds with eachother. I still wanted a framework which felt as qualitative, effortless and pure as Skeleton did. No “api-breaking changes” or industrial-grade build-processes.
For me, the winner was Spectre.CSS[1], great work by Yan Zhu[2] . I'd like to pretend Spectre covers all of contemporary must-have elements, details and attractively styled controls for all future needs, because Spectre is great at teaching what is doable with pure CSS at the same time it makes me feel like a great designer, getting more done while doing even less.
[1] https://picturepan2.github.io/spectre/getting-started.html [2] [https://github.com/picturepan2/spectre]
And its HN thread 8 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22681270
Now I can get mostly where I want to go without frameworks and it is very empowering. It's just another language, it's not that tough.
Where most of us developers struggle with is making beautiful websites vs just something that works but looks ok.
One of the reasons bootstrap is so successful is that it's easy to use/integrate and produces a website that is very pleasant to look at.
i think a part of that was also realizing what drew me to frameworks initially was less about styling and more about the grid or flexbox etc scaffold - the most daunting part for me to this day. creating my own set of base templates helped me learn quite a bit about grids though, and now when stuff breaks i can tackle it with more confidence in where to look for the issue and how to go about fixing it.
that being said, i'm not anti-framework or anything - i relied on them alot as i learned CSS, and even now i still treat them like something akin to styleguides or catalogs of what's new/trending in webdesign
The key thing I looked for was when the templates had been created and how often/how recently it had been updated - sites like Envato are loaded to the brim with old no-longer-updated templates.
I tested by loading them on the iPhone 6.
In almost every single case, the layout instantly broke, OR the side menu didn't work, OR the side menu felt "sticky" and would not smooth scroll, OR sliding the side menu scrolled the underlying page as well.
That was 90% of the templates or more - the quality level in general is terrible.
The ones we chose were from https://bootlab.io/themes - very nice quality.
Does anyone have any examples of templates that focus on clean, lean code as well as final layout? I'm thinking framework-agnostic low-to-no JS, coupled with something that doesn't use thousands of lines of CSS for a homepage layout.
Templates: https://cruip.com/
It's not quite the same as starting with an out-of-the-box template but it can help save a lot of design time to get inspiration.
