5 Standardized Methods for Writing CSS

Posted: 24 Sep 2014 03:00 AM PDT

CSS is hard to maintain and scale without a well-defined approach. Here are five CSS development methodologies and style guides that can help.

1. SMACSS

SMACSS

SMACSS stands for Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS. A core idea behind this CSS development approach is minimizing the depth of selectors in order to keep them modular as well as to lower dependency on the HTML structure. In SMACSS, there are five style-rule categories: Base, Layout, Module, State, and Theme.

2. CSS Guidelines

CSS Guidelines

CSS Guidelines is a comprehensive guide for writing maintainable CSS. It has rules such as limiting stylesheet lines to 80 characters, using soft tabs equal to four spaces, and so forth.

3. OOCSS

OOCSS

OOCSS stands for Object-oriented CSS. The central component of this approach is the CSS object, defined as "a repeating visual pattern, that can be abstracted into an independent snippet of HTML, CSS, and possibly JavaScript."¹

4. BEM

BEM

BEM stands for Block, Element, Modifier. In this front-end development methodology, a block is a discrete component, or a "building block". An element is a part of a block; for instance, a search form block has two elements: (1) a text input box and (2) a button. A modifier is a property that changes a block or element visually or behaviorally. Each block has a unique name (a CSS class).

5. idiomatic CSS

idiomatic CSS

Principles of writing consistent, idiomatic CSS — or idiomatic CSS for short — is a CSS development style guide. It includes guidelines for code-formatting, commenting in the stylesheet, and such. The core principle behind this style guide is to keep your source CSS consistent and readable.

Citations

oocss Wiki

About the Author

Jacob Gube is the founder of Six Revisions. He’s a front-end web developer. If you’d like to connect with him, head over to the contact page and follow him on Twitter: @sixrevisions.