CSS-Checker: Find and Reduce Similar and Duplicated CSS Scripts

github.com

41 points·zhcalvin··12 comments

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If I understand this correctly, it is similar to Parcel's bundler/minifier: https://css-tricks.com/parcel-css/

Except that Parcel is a parser, deduper, transformer [autoprefixer, future-CSS-to-current-convertor] and minifier.

And that, in turn, is based on CSSNano [although it is a complete rewrite in Rust], IIRC.

Can someone confirm that I understand correctly, and if so, how does this compare to Parcel? To CSSNano or PurgeCSS?

There are a number of things that PurgeCSS can't safely remove, so this tool looks like it is intended for code review.

Exactly. CSS-Checker is to check and show the similar classes for programmers to read

> It is designed to avoid redundant or similar css between files

See also CSS Stats, https://cssstats.com/, and atomic/functional/utility CSS libraries more generally which are designed exactly to eliminate as much redundant CSS as possible.

Thanks for mentioning, css-checker is more lightweight and intended to be used as a command-line tool.

these type of tools always end up biting you in the ass

Why? Any example? This tool just tell, not changing anything.

I mean, when you start deleting css because you think it's redundant.

Not a comment on the tool itself, just the nature of css and it's emergent complexity. It's very difficult to refactor large css codebase, especially in an automated or part-automated fashion.

I use https://www.projectwallace.com/ to check CSS quality. It does a lot more than just checking for similar declarations.

Since when is CSS a “script”?

ie: files

I would refer to other declarative constraint languages as scripts.

Something doesn't have to be Turing complete to be a recipe for a computation.

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