I updated my site recently(two days ago to be exact) and part of the update was incorporating the update to the Blueprint CSS Framework. My overall experience was smooth and the improvements are welcomed.
No More .Column
One big update was getting rid of the column class which previously was needed with just about everything you did in Blueprint. Now instead of writing:
<div class="column span-7">
You can write:
<div class="span-7">
While for most people this doesn’t cause a problem, some people(like me) would assign column and span classes to things like a tag to eliminate some divitis. In short classitis has been replaced with divitis, which is really fine with me, thank god I only used .column on a tag once in my current theme.
The Compressor
Now for the really welcomed update. Blueprint 0.7 comes with a compressor script written in ruby. The compressor gives an already great framework a good shot of steroids and turns it into a ‘roid raged horse of a framework. Custom name-spaces, custom classes, ability to combine CSS sheets, and even compressing!
They way I use blueprint is pretty straight forward, I block out a website with blueprint, then create a new style sheet which has all of my classes and overrides in it. This creates a few extra includes and css files which isn’t really optimal. Not to mention some software like phpSpeedy can’t compress multiple css files called by import. No more! Now I can write my CSS then compress it combine it and create custom class names all with a simple command.
But thats not it! Oh no, theres more, I’ve saved the best for last, the creme de la creme, the cherry on top, the pepperoni on the pizza. Ok so it isn’t all that and bag of chips, but the ability to create a custom grid is included in the script is nothing to laugh at. This is really nothing new, there is a site that can do this already, but having the ability along with everything else the script can do makes this very powerful! Imagine a custom grid, with custom classes(you know like .header, .content, .footer, getting the picture) and custom name spaces, and suddenly that
<div class="span-24 header last border menu">
becomes
<div class="header">
And thats a overly simple example. Class bloat can now be a thing of the past, if you so incline(it doesn’t bother me, I love complex horrible impossible to update messy code, its my style).
I’m Drunk With Power
I haven’t even begun to take Blueprint to the full potential of this new update, but my mind is overflowing with ideas of what I may be able to twist and squeeze out of it. If you haven’t given Blueprint a try, now would be a good time to jump in, there a plenty of resources to learn it. Spend the time to master the little nuances of Blueprint and you will not regret the speed in which you can build websites.
