The Golden Grid - CSS Framework | Hacker News Reader

The Golden Grid - CSS Framework

code.google.com

65 pointsvladocar19 comments

View source on this page: http://www.allapis.com/The-Golden-Grid/golden7.html

... and tell me what I could possibly be gaining from this system. They've defined a table, with some code that doesn't really look like a table, and they've had to hand-split the text for that specific page so that it would fit into the cells.

I honestly can't tell what part of this is supposed to be an improvement over anything we have already. I had assumed that they had found a way to make content flow into multi-column layouts, but they haven't. They've just discovered {clear:none;float:left;}.

Or am I missing something?

Practically none of the grid systems accommodates the most common ad widths (120, 160, 180, 300)px well (https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/AdFormats.html). I use malo (http://code.google.com/p/malo/), incidentally by the same author as this post's framework.

It's simple enough to grasp in a few seconds and it allows me to use a grid that fits well enough around most ads. It's also so small that cross-browser breakage is easy to detect.

Is this a parody site? Surely... This can't be for real.

http://www.vcarrer.com/2009/02/golden-grid.html (linked from the "article") does make it sound like a spoof. e.g.:

"Dimensions

One, Two, Three - jump. Where is four? We usually stop at tree. Why? Three is the magic number. Three is a lucky number. Three is the fourth of Fibonacci. It is the first number that breaks the symmetry of 2.

I decided to build the golden grid based on this number.

3 + 3 and 3 + 3 + 3 +3 => 6/12 grid system"

I don't think this is a parody site. The same author created the Hartija print css framework and a few other css frameworks. There is also good documentation and demo code available for the Golden CSS framework. It looks very interesting.

Now I know how programmers must have felt when Why The Lucky Stiff came on the scene.

I've looked at many CSS grid frameworks and first thing to mind is always "looks like a printed magazine".

I suspect that is why certain designers are attracted to them. But is also why I click away wondering "why would anyone ever do that?"

You're looking at it too literally. A grid is meant to be a basic visual system -- a framework in itself really -- that brings order to 2D design and usually gets obscured by graphics. All of these are based on exacting grids: http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/best-of-css-design-200... some more apparent than others. Of course, the value of a framework of a framework is another question.

Interesting comments. Thank you all for commenting. @Axed: I worked long and hard for The Grid System. Parody site? I don't get it!? @njharman:Good observation. It does look like print magazine :) @all: This is not tabele v.s css article or project. CSS is just the tool. It is about web grids, dimension, geometry and my personal quest to better web layout.

Has anyone tallied up how many of those grid systems there are out there at the moment?

Also, do any of these systems work for email?

Wikipedia lists 23 but there sure are more that have (like this one) not made it, yet.

I think tables are still best for email. Here's a nice resource on the subject: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/design-guidelines/

Yes, because most mail readers don't come close to any sort of rendering compliance.

GPL License? No thanks. Stick with YUI which is the same but more flexible, BSD licensed and far better documented (although admittedly, higher weight).

looks interesting. goodie but first i need to read the documentation :)

Why is this up rated? Why not just use tables and get the job done instead of "hacking" tables in CSS sigh

I'm a "use tables for layout occasionally" kinds guy, but this isn't the same. This isn't a CSS replacement for tables, this is a standard set of styles to assist in doing a grid-based design.

This is something I don't understand about these sorts of grid systems. Isn't using specific classes for the divs of the grid in the HTML just as difficult for maintenance purposes as using a table? You're defining specific rows and columns and because you're doing so with class names, that layout information is in the HTML and not the CSS.

The point of using CSS for layout is to have the markup be relevant to the content of the document, not for it to be relevant to the styling. Just as having class names like "blueText" or "thickBorder" is injecting style information into the HTML, so is having class names like 'g80' or 'g940' or whatever.

Why did you comment? Why not just express your disinterest by not commenting?

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