Show HN: I combined Milligram, Skeleton, and Normalize into a single CSS project | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I combined Milligram, Skeleton, and Normalize into a single CSS project

sscaffold-css.com

158 pointsthaumaturgy33 comments

I've been a fan of skeleton and then milligram for a while, but milligram has gone quiet recently and has a few issues, and skeleton has been quiet for a long time. Both of them have normalize.css as a dependency.

I wanted an updated CSS file with the same aesthetic, so I've taken some time to stitch it all together. There are a few differences from milligram, but I've tried to keep those at a minimum.

It's on Github at https://github.com/robsheldon/sscaffold-css/. Now's a great time to open up some issues on it before its first release.

I was looking for something like this. Seems it just might do the trick. Awesome job, thanks!

impressive documentation for a simple “stitched together” library. you even bought a domain name! nice work.

Ditch the thin light-grey font on white background. I have 20/20 vision and I have to attain my eyes to read the text.

That's a good suggestion, I'll read up on good higher-contrast colors and fix it.

You should also change the thin Montserrat, which is only suitable as a display face. It looks awkward and is very hard to read.

I really love you have picked up from skeleton / milligram.

A suggestion, you might want to included a minified version of the css because it looks to be 22kb and you’ll be compared against skeleton which is just 2kb.

https://github.com/robsheldon/sscaffold-css/blob/master/ssca...

Edit: typo

If the idea is to edit the single file, rather than include it and an override - would it make sense to distribute a minified version?

Also, what's the difference after gzip/deflate?

Isn’t the best approach to frameworks always been to “include it and override it” that way your customizations stay cleanly separate and upgrading the framework is just a drop in replacement.

FWIW I want this to work for both of you. I wanted the single file to be a good enough drop-in to get a project started, but I also reorganized the CSS to make it easier to override it for custom theming. There should be a minified version too.

> also reorganized the CSS to make it easier to override it

I think this could/should be made more clear on the homeppage.

I generally prefer cascading styles (base+override) - but for that to work well, especially with bug fixes to the underlying library/framework - the CSS needs to be well structured.

I'm a little amazed that the theming story for earlier versions of bootstrap is so horrible, for example (although, part of that is due to terrible "theme packs" by people that don't understand CSS, or bootstrap).

Unrelated: What's the reason for mentioning an edit for a typo? As far as I can tell there's no indication that your comment has been edited so nobody would know, unless I don't have enough karma to see this indication or something?

It's convention to be extremely transparent about edits because of irritation with people who change their comments after being replied to, making the replies look irrelevant or incorrect. The only way for people to know about an edit is to see that comment changing. Sometimes you'll see allegations posted about surreptitious comment editing. It's just easier to always say you've edited.

I understand that, but was curious about typo edits in particular. A typo fix doesn't change the meaning of the comment in 99% of cases.

It's a habit. I sometimes do that too, without thinking much about it.

I usually mention edits because I'm used to it. Unless I edit right after posting, I keep a log. The same on reddit and tildes.

I can barely read that low-contrast thin font, and I have average vision.

    body {
        color: #606c76;
    }

why.

Just... why.

Sorry. I'm colorblind and forget sometimes that I handle greys better than average. I'll find a better default color for the text.

Try #767676 (contrast ratio against #fff = AA 4.54:1), neutral gray and closest to the official minimum recommendation (4.5:1) for body text.

Done, thanks for the suggestion.

I agree, the thin font is annoying, I have no problems with vision. But for some reason it's also ridiculously big, I had to turn my browser's zoom to 67% because it was hard to read that big, Skeleton's defaults are much better. Interestingly Medium and a few other rare sites have the same problem, I think web devs have forgot that people might have 5:4 aspect ratios.

Sounds like there's some kind of weird font sizing happening for some devices. I'll expand the CBT device list and try to fix it.

Skelton user here. Nice to see this effort but some issues. Your page margins are too thin on mobile and the typography is off. Line height to font size to rendered stroke width ratios are not correct.

Skeleton lib fell away and was forked and revitalized as Barebones which is better, then Skeleton had the resurgance as it were, but still, may I suggest you replace Skeleton with it as it is superior https://acahir.github.io/Barebones/

Good work! I like the concept of creating a new project based two formerly popular css projects that now seem to be abandoned.

A nice way to pay respect to the work done by previous contributors, and also giving the projects a chance at a second life. Could be a good way to drive interest again, and encourage further development!

I used to use skeleton until CSS Grid support became widespread.

Suggestion: tell me up front the minimized size and minimized + gzipped size. Otherwise looks pretty good, so the size decides whether it’s lightweight enough for certain projects.

Are there other similar options, but are also mature, lean, well maintained and a good enough replacement for Bootstrap for most common components/layouts?

https://semantic-ui.com would come to mind. There is also a well maintained react fork available.

Another one is https://bulma.io which is less blown up.

Spectre css

Do you even need stuff like this when we have CSS Grid now?

What were the issues with skeleton/milligram that you are looking to fix? I have never used either library, but have considered them both in the past.

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