Curtis Henson

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.

I’ve launched the new curtishenson.com! But what has changed? It looks the same! Well it wasn’t a complete redesign but a realign. I’ve launched a premium wordpress theme called Chocolate and this site now reflects that new direction.

The homepage is now much more useful and will change with the focus of the site. My aim was to have a big bold homepage that will be very dynamic and reflect my current projects. And to be a bit of eye candy.

New font! I love fonts, I love sIFR and I love Avant Garde! I think Avant Garde is much more appealing font and more fitting than delicious was.

I can’t read it, it is too dark. Yes the sidebars, headings, and other elements are much darker than they were. I want the focus of the user to be on the content, not distracted by doodads and widgets. Everything is still very readable but blends in with the background when not focused on, which allows me to really pop things out I want you to see.

Code! Yes the code has been changed, and in fact is still changing. The Blueprint CSS framework has been updated to the latest version(more on that later). The wordpress code has changed and hopefully the site is smoother and more well behaved. I will also be consolidating my wordpress theme files down to minimum and will be writing a tutorial about that very soon! I’ve also upgraded the cache to WP Super Cache, and phpSpeedy is handling the compression. The end result, I hope, is a fast agile tiger like website!

Oh yeah I added flickr in my sidebar, thats right I’m one of the cool kids now.

A new version of the blueprint CSS framework has been released.  It features a few improvements on things like file structure and class names.  But the big update is the included compressor which can do all sorts of cool things like semantic class names, and a grid generator.  I plan on updating this site with the new code and will do a write up and maybe a tutorial when I am done.  Which brings me to my other new blueprint.

There has been a slow down in posts and that is due to me finishing up my first premium wordpress theme and the re-aligning of this website.  I’m currently getting the documentation together, and writing tutorials and such which has taken up my blogging time.  The good content and useful posts will be making an appearance with less pithy comments type of posts.

This site has been going through little changes since it’s inception and as it sits the design isn’t really snapping together, I hope to fix that.  Also the index page of curtishenson.com is pretty much worthless, that will be completely changed and the site will essentially be split into two sections: a blog, and webdesign.  I hope this will better serve everyone.

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Eric Meyer has updated his reset CSS styles again.  For those that don’t know, these reset CSS styles so you have a consistent starting point across most browsers.  The updates are little ones but they make good sense.  I always use these reset styles and I’m glad that Eric is updating and thinking about them.  You can read more about the changes and get the code on his site.