Question one
Russ: The second edition of your new book "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" has just been written. Before we get into the details of this book, I want to ask: How many books have you published? I swear my local library has a category dedicated to your books.
Eric: No, no, those were all Molly Holzschlag books, and I was just kind of like, ancillary. I've written 5 books, one of which is a condensed version, which I guess may or may not qualify as a book (my wife insists it does). The first one is "The Definitive Guide to CSS". If this second edition is considered a stand-alone version, then I have 6 books. I personally think that this second edition is considered a volume, because its workload is equivalent to writing a new book.
Question 2
Russ: What content is added or updated in the new Definitive Guide compared to the first edition?
Eric: Almost everything has been updated. The only things that don't need to be changed are the first chapter and the chapter about fonts. The rest of the content has been mostly or completely updated. The original chapter arrangement is completely broken up and rearranged in the text state. For example: in the first edition there were chapters "floating in the Visual Formatting" and "positioning got its own". In the new edition I merged them into a single chapter and rewrote most of the formatting chapters. In the same way, "the bit about lists" was moved to its original chapter and a lot of content was added. Three chapters are brand new: Table Layout, User Interface Styles, and Non-Screen Media.
Question three
Russ: I heard a rumor that your "Eric Meyer on CSS" also has a new version. How many design methods does the new version provide?
Eric: That rumor is true. We've named it "in a blinding flash of creative genius, 'More Eric Meyer on CSS.' " It has some improvements over the first version, but not much. What I want to say is that these two books are not related before and after. There is no need to read the first edition for the second edition (even if you own both.) Readers of the first edition can recall that the first design method How to convert a table-driven layout into a simple table and CSS. In the new book, the first design method is to convert the relevant page designed with only HTML logo and blank GIF into a page that uses pure CSS to replace the table layout.
Similarly, there are many design methods, such as: multiple ways to display photo gallery styles, using tabular data to achieve neat financial reports, and using background layout to achieve translucent effects in multiple browsers, including IE/Win. middle.
There is a design method for displaying three-level lists, including nesting of lists and how to convert them into a "dropdown" menu, and it can work on most browsers (including IE/Win), just like Doug Bowman's Sliding Doors (sliding doors) technology is equally good.
In addition to the above, there is a combined method to solve the problem of weblog entry style. The last method in the book is to take a random design from CSS Zen Garden (created by Dave) and implement it in CSS. Basically, Dave gives me a photoshop design file and I cut it into the pieces I need and make it work with CSS, this way you can see the entire process from design to final code. I also considered using PNG images, which would not look ugly in IE/win.
Question 4
Russ: Two years ago, CSS was rarely discussed, now it seems to be talked about everywhere! Do you think you helped shift it into mainstream consciousness?
Eric: It's a natural thing, really. First, IE6 began to support the DOCTYPE switch, and later announced that it would no longer release new IE versions, giving everyone a sense of stability. Second, enough designers have enough time to read books and tutorials and experiment with CSS on their own sites. In this context, a number of excellent design sites have emerged. Third, I think it's because as the art of design advanced, web designers (like Doug Bowman, Dave Shea, and Jeffrey Zeldman) who had design geniuses and truly understood the benefits of CSS pushed things forward. The redesign of the Wired magazine website, CSS Zen Garden, and other sites began to showcase CSS-driven design that not only worked, but looked beautiful and incredible.
An increasing number of practical, easy-to-follow resources (such as Listutorial and Floatutorial) also play a big role, and so on.
Question 5 Russ: For designers and developers who are just starting to come into contact with and use web standards, which aspects of CSS are the most important?
Eric:The most important thing? I would have to say the cascading part. Not just the cascade, but inheritance, specificity, and selector construction. Once you get the hang of that, the rest is just a matter of detail.
Next, I think a thorough understanding of visual effects, including blocks and inlines, is also crucial. If you know what your design will look like, you can avoid a lot of headaches (CSS not performing as expected). Like many languages, CSS has its rules, and ignoring them is bound to lead to chaos.
Question six
Russ: In the past 12 months, there has been an image replacement technology that has been introduced. What's your overall feeling about it? If you had to use it, which model would you use?
Eric: I prefer the CSS3 approach: replacing content with the 'content' property. This is as low-weight and non-hackish as possible. This is also the method under the current low support situation, because currently only Opera supports image replacement.
In addition, I found that picture replacement technology has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it makes some text look beautiful, and the disadvantage is that it creates usability problems for audio readers. Frankly, the real problem lies with the readers themselves. They try to show real pages and reading results, but they are doing exactly the wrong thing. If a page is set to a screen-medium style, the browser will completely ignore those styles, unless most browsers are repaired.
Question 7
Russ: It seems like the mere mention of "font size" ignites the CSS debate - a war between font purists and web designers. Do you think there is a solution that works for all users?
Eric: No, although I wish there was another way, I don't. Each method of setting up fonts has advantages and disadvantages. The best you can do is to find a method that was best before and least likely to change in the future, and this needs to be done in a continuous design-by-design process. A designer's goal is to control text fonts in pixels to achieve the best possible performance, although using ems or keywords (such as x-small) can achieve better results. Any time someone tells you that there is a way to define your font size that will fit all sites, they are simply telling you a principle, not a solution.
Question 8
Russ: There is a question that has always been controversial. What do you think of CSS hacks?
Eric: It's inevitable that one day, our browsers can perfectly support and execute CSS, and that's when CSS hacks stop. Until then we'll stick to it. To point out, I mean this for all hacks, whether they're for CSS or other things like Microsoft's Conditional Comments.
Question 9
Russ: Do you think that when the browser market is ready for CSS3, it will enter a new era -- remember the timeline of Microsoft's Longhorn operating system.
Eric: I think so. However, according to this statement, full support for CSS2 visual media (visual-medium) seems to have been completed as early as 2003. My prophecy record has always been worse than others, and may not be suitable for a long-term plan.
Question ten
Russ: Last question, more and more web designers are joining the CSS2 bandwagon. Do you think the complexity of CSS3 will reduce its appeal, or even make some designers who are afraid of it give up CSS completely?
Eric: It's even worse than that: most web designers only learn parts of CSS2 without truly understanding its essence.
Anything can happen, as if there were designers who were intimidated by the "complexity" of CSS1 (relative to their knowledge).
One good thing about CSS3 is that it's separated and integrated into modules, so you can ignore the parts you don't care about and focus on the parts you want to know about. If you really want to delve into printing styles, you can read the Print module to learn about it. If your concern is internationalization, then you find the I18N module, there are some parts that everyone needs to know (like selectors and cascades), but then, along with your interest comes having to chew through the huge spec sheet .