This isn’t a rhetorical question, I’m genuinely trying to understand what the point of this package is. I’m sure a lot of people have invested a lot of time and energy to it, but maybe I’m just missing something.
And I did read the “Why it is good” section on the project site, but still couldn’t figure out why all of this shouldn’t be known to a designer to begin with as it seems to me that this stuff is a collection of Googlings or stuff that can be resolved by browsing the spec page for a bit. And browser quirks aren’t something that will trouble you if you keep to sane uses of CSS and HTML; a lot of problems can be avoided when following the rule of Less is more.
Cross-browser compatible (IE6+, yeah we got that.)
IE6 is dead. Supporting a dead or dying browser makes no sense at all and, realistically speaking, any “advanced” feature you’re trying to push via HTML5 on your site will be thoroughly broken on it anyway.
Browsers that matter (I.E. ones you want to push your flashy new site on) will likely have other issues besides how well it renders every pixel on screen. Besides that, “cross-browser compatible” is usually a byword term for “not accessible” so in essence there’s a lot of mutually exclusive stuff pushed with the package with regard to accessibility.
HTML5 ready. Use the new tags with certainty.
Modernizr allows you to do this already and most browsers (even the old ones) simply treat a lot of the new architecture tags like <article>, <section> or <nav> as just a div by default.
Video and audio are the sticking points for most HTML5 sites with media and while you can do embedding fairly easily, the hard part is the codec standard (which none of the major vendors are agreeing on) so that leaves the embed tag you choose a non-issue compared to the codec headaches.
Optimal caching and compression rules for grade-A performance
jQuery caches dynamically loaded scripts as does Modernizr and most web hosts already have mod_deflate enabled for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Best practice site configuration defaults
Less is more. See above.
Often times, if you’re struggling to make a layout look exactly the same as a mockup, you’re writing more markup and not effective markup. CSS and HTML only get complicated when you try to do things that are best left doing with images rather than pure markup.
Mobile browser optimizations
Less is more (2). See above.
Also, modern mobile browsers are fully capable of rendering a page meant for a full screen; Mobile browsers have a zoom feature. The issue isn’t the rendering, it’s the data plan. Worry more about “how much” you’re sending to the mobile device rather than “how” it’s rendered.
Progressive enhancement graceful degradation … yeah yeah we got that
Less is more (3). See above.
Browsers that will render HTML4 will render HTML5 without issue for the most part. CSS 3 with conditional 2.1 or older may help with older browsers, but what will really help a visitor is a helpful reminder (if they’re on IE 6) that they’re using a dangerously insecure browser and should upgrade right away. Let’s be more concerned with our civic duty to protect the web and its users than how pretty our sites look for a change.
IE specific classes for maximum cross-browser control
Less is more (4). See above.
There’s a line in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope by Princess Leia to governor Tarkin
The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers
Sensible control is a better option than “maximum” control. You want your site to look good (“perfect” is a dream until we all start using the same browser; at which point I’d rather not be developing for the web) so think about this… what is it that you’re trying to accomplish with your site? And does your preoccupation with perfection keeping you from accomplishing it?
Handy .no-js and .js classes to style based on capability
Less is more (5). See above.
Sensible use of CSS 2.1 and 3 will get a great deal of the same functionality as JS. I’d much rather see designers become familiar with 2.1 first as there are a lot of basics that get skipped that lay a good foundation. You would be amazed at how little markup you actually need to get a good result.
Also, JS gets ignored by three kind of visitors :
- JS Disabled, but capable – Aren’t interested in being bothered with ads or other flashy nonsense and will likely be interested in the content rather than presentation. Be concerned with the quality of the content and just make it available without hurdles.
- JS Incapable – Usually screen readers, text only or other such specialty browser. CSS is only applicable for accessibility.
- Bots – Don’t need CSS anyway.
Again, here is a good case for using sensible CSS rather than clever CSS.
Console.log nerfing so you won’t break anyone by mistake.
This is vendor specific stuff that shouldn’t be encouraged too much. Firebug is fine and all, but if something “breaks” something else, it’s usually a result of poor encapsulation.
Also… Less is more (6). See above.
Never go wrong with your doctype or markup!
Never underestimate a novice developer’s ability to break the unbreakable. I remember Adam Savage of the Mythbusters once giving a presentation and mentioned how surprised he was that actors were able to break welded steel on certain stage props (back in his prop making days) by merely handling them. If there’s a way to break it, they will find it. Also of note, Less is more (7) and the less markup you have, the less you will likely break it.
An optimal print stylesheet, performance optimized.
If your HTML5 layout can’t be made printer friendly with the following :
body { color:#000 !important; background:#fff !important;}
aside, footer { display:none !important; }
You’re doing it wrong or doing it too complicated.
Also… Less is more (8). See above.
iOS, Android, Opera Mobile-adaptable markup and CSS skeleton.
Less is more (9). See above.
As mentioned before, mobile devices today aren’t the text only readers of yesteryear. When multi-touch is becoming commonplace, your chief concern should still be bulk, not pixel perfection.
Fun fact: A pixel is not really a pixel on a mobile screen.
.clearfix, .visuallyhidden classes to style things wisely and accessibly.
Never been a fan of hacks. You can bash IE all you want, but there are ways to get around it without resorting to too much CSS witchcraft. And since Less is more (10), you automatically improve accesibility by simply not piling too much on the browser to begin with and taking a browse at the above linked spec page for HTML5 and CSS3 at w3schools.
.htaccess file that allows proper use of HTML5 features and faster page load
Also guarantees to break any CMS. There are some things in the default .htaccess that do make sense like denying access to hidden folders or log and other such special files, but then there are other things that are completely pedantic or just plain asinine. Like forcibly rewriting http://www.example.com into example.com. Honestly what’s the big deal?
And measures like setting session.cookie_httponly makes sense if you don’t use JavaScript to manipulate cookies on your own web application. This is a classic case of more security not necessarily being better than just better security. You should be vetting your application for SQL injection and XSS vulnerabilities and not handicapping yourself. Security is a process, not a destination, and the .htaccess isn’t something to be casually played with. You’re better off not having a .htaccess file there at all and instead a link to the OWASP page so anyone who downloads the package can familiarlize themselves and understand what it is they’re doing rather than copy > pasting.
And then there’s this :
# Force the latest IE version, in various cases when it may fall back to IE7 mode
# github.com/rails/rails/commit/123eb25#commitcomment-118920
# Use ChromeFrame if it’s installed for a better experience for the poor IE folk
This may be a secret to a lot of people and you may not know this about IE users, but please believe me when I say this, it’s completely true. Most IE users DON’T GIVE A SH!# ABOUT WHICH JS ENGINE THEY HAVE!!
If your site needs a JS engine swap to make it work better on IE7, then it’s more poorly designed than IE7.
Also, did I mention Less is more (11)? See above.
CDN hosted jQuery with local fallback failsafe.
I’m fairly certain that the Google library or the one hosted by Microsoft are unlikely to be unavailable unless you’re hosting your site in Iran or China (do they block ajax.googleapis.com?) Other than that, this is a 3 second fix for anyone using Modernizr or jQuery.
Think there’s too much? The HTML5 Boilerplate is delete-key friendly. :)
Enter-key friendly will always leave less cruft in your code than delete-key friendly.
Here’s all you need to start with HTML 5 (add more as necessary) using just the bare essentials to get going.
A basic index.html file
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-us">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<title>Site title</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="lib/modernizr.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var spath = "lib/";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="lib/loader.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="page">
<header>
<div class="title">
<h1><a href=".">This is a site</a></h1>
<p>Some sorta description</p>
</div>
</header>
<article>
<section class="column two-thirds">
<h2>Section header</h2>
<p>This is where your main content goes.</p>
</section>
<aside class="column one-third">
<h3>This can be the sidebar</h3>
<p>Put your links and stuff here.</p>
</aside>
<footer>
<p>Copyright and stuff here</p>
</footer>
</article>
</div>
</body>
</html>
You can download Modernizr here. Using modernizr, here is the loader.js file (gets the basics downloaded including jQuery, validation and jQuery UI).
if(!window.jQuery)
Modernizr.load([{
load: "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js"
}, {
load: "https://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.9/jquery.validate.min.js"
}, {
load: "https://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.9/additional-methods.min.js"
}, {
load: "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.18/jquery-ui.min.js"
}, {
load: spath + "yourlib.js"
}]);
You can add more of your own libraries as necessary, but yourlib.js can be just a jQuery specific code file.
$(function () {
// More of your stuff here
});
And here’s a usable style.css that you can run with.
/* Default */
body
{
font-family: "Segoe UI" , Tahoma, Sans-Serif;
font-weight: normal;
font-size: medium;
}
@media screen
{
/* Reset */
body, div, header, article, section, aside, footer,
p, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, ul, li, blockquote,
form, fieldset, legend, input, textarea, select,
table, td, th, hr
{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
line-height: normal;
}
body
{
font: normal 86% "Segoe UI" , "Myriad" , Tahoma, Sans-serif;
color: #333;
background: #fff;
margin: 0;
padding: .7em;
}
div.page
{
width: 80%;
max-width: 1200px;
min-width: 800px;
text-align: left;
margin: 0 auto 1em auto;
}
/* Headings */
h1, h2, h3, h4
{
font-weight: normal;
padding: .4em 0 .1em 0;
}
h1
{
font-size: 230%;
color: #a33;
}
h2
{
font-size: 150%;
padding: .4em 0;
}
h3
{
font-size: 140%;
}
aside h3
{
border:1px dotted #aaa;
border-width:0 0 1px 0;
}
h4
{
font-size: 130%;
}
h5
{
font-size: 120%;
}
h6
{
font-size: 110%;
}
/* Page segments */
article, header, footer, hr
{
clear: both;
}
header
{
}
article
{
width: 100%;
}
header:first-child
{
margin: 0 0 1em 0;
border: 1px dotted #aaa;
border-width: 0 0 1px 0;
}
footer
{
border: 1px dotted #aaa;
border-width: 1px 0 0 0;
}
aside
{
background: #f8f8ff;
box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #ddd;
border-radius:3px;
}
hr
{
background: #a33;
height: 1px;
margin: .5em 0;
}
/* Paragraphs */
p
{
line-height: 140%;
padding: 1em;
}
.column p
{
padding:1em 0;
}
section p
{
padding: .2em 0 1em 0;
}
aside p
{
padding: 1em !important;
}
form p
{
line-height:normal;
padding:.2em .5em .5em .5em !important;
}
header p
{
padding: 0 0 1em 0;
}
footer p
{
font-size: 90%;
color: #000;
}
blockquote p
{
padding: .4em 0;
}
/* Block content */
blockquote
{
background: #f5f5ff;
border: 1px dashed #aaa;
padding: .4em 1em;
margin: .5em 0;
border-radius:.5em;
}
/* Columns */
.column
{
float: left;
margin: 0 2% 0 0;
padding: .2em 0;
}
.half
{
width: 47.4%;
}
.two-thirds
{
width: 64.7%;
}
.one-third
{
width: 31.3%;
}
.one-fourth
{
width: 23%;
}
.one-fifth
{
width: 18%;
}
/* Images */
img
{
vertical-align: middle;
}
a img
{
border: 0;
}
/* Links */
a
{
color: #a33;
}
nav a
{
color: #a33 !important;
}
h1 a, h2 a, h3 a, h4 a
{
text-decoration: none;
}
h1 a:hover, h2 a:hover, h3 a:hover, h4 a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
/* Pager */
nav.page
{
font-size:120%;
padding:1em 0;
clear:both;
}
nav.page strong, nav.page a
{
font-weight:bold;
}
nav.page a
{
text-decoration:none;
font-size:90%;
}
nav.page a:hover
{
box-shadow:2px 2px 2px #ddd;
}
nav.page strong
{
font-size:120%;
}
/* Tags */
aside p.tags
{
line-height: 200% !important;
}
a.tag
{
padding: 7px 3px !important;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.tag:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
a.x1
{
font-size: 11px;
}
a.x2
{
font-size: 12px;
}
a.x3
{
font-size: 13px;
}
a.x4
{
font-size: 14px;
}
a.x5
{
font-size: 15px;
}
a.x6
{
font-size: 16px;
}
a.x7
{
font-size: 17px;
}
a.x7
{
font-size: 18px;
}
a.x8
{
font-size: 18px;
}
a.x9
{
font-size: 19px;
}
a.x10
{
font-size: 20px;
}
a.x11
{
font-size: 21px;
}
a.x12
{
font-size: 22px;
}
a.x13
{
font-size: 23px;
}
a.x14
{
font-size: 24px;
}
a.x15
{
font-size: 25px;
}
/* Lists */
ul, ol
{
margin: 1em 2em;
}
ul li, ol li
{
margin: 0 0 .3em 0;
}
/* Form elements */
header form
{
float: right;
margin:3.5em 0 0 0;
}
header form legend
{
display: none;
}
fieldset
{
border: 1px solid #a33;
border-color:#a33 #ddd #ddd #ddd;
box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #ddd;
margin: 0 0 1em 0;
padding:.3em;
}
.column fieldset
{
min-height:15em;
}
legend
{
font-size: 130%;
padding: .2em .3em;
margin: .2em 1em 0 1em;
}
input[type^='button'], input[type^='text'], input[type^='password'], textarea
{
border: 1px solid #999;
border-radius:.3em;
background: #fff;
color: #575757;
padding: .4em;
}
.column input[type^='text'], .column input[type^='password'], textarea
{
width: 90%;
}
input[type^='text']:focus, input[type^='password']:focus, textarea:focus
{
border-color:#a33;
}
textearea {
font: normal 100% "Segoe UI" , "Myriad" , Tahoma, Sans-serif;
}
input[type^='submit'], input[type^='reset'], input[type^='button']
{
cursor: pointer;
background: transparent;
font-size: 120%;
color: #a33;
}
label input:not([type^='checkbox']), label textarea
{
display: block;
}
label span
{
font-size: 75%;
font-weight: bold;
color: #a33;
}
input.error
{
color: #000;
background: #fcc;
border: 1px solid #a33;
}
label span
{
font: bold 75% sans-serif;
color: #a33;
}
label.error
{
padding: 2px;
color: #fff;
background: #f33;
}
}
@media print
{
body { color:#000 !important; background:#fff !important; }
aside, footer { display:none !important; }
}
/*
Chocolate? This is doo doo baby!
- Dave Chappelle
*/
—
I do know that HTML5 Boilerplate is doing a very good job of promoting HTML5 Boilerplate.
All in all, it seems to be a solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist. Or maybe I’m wrong.
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