| CSS,
Cascading Style Sheets, are used to extend the display and formatting
capabilities of HTML, which is the language used to describe how
a web page should be rendered in a web browser. HTML is somewhat
simplistic and was not designed to facilitate the creation of highly
graphical, attractive user interfaces.
CSS changes this. CSS can be used by an HTML document, the HTML
describes the structure of the document whilst the CSS is left to
control the design, position and layout aspects. What may have previously
been a quite boring static page can be transformed into a rich,
interactive user interface. This enhancement enables web pages to
move closer to the feel of a traditional desktoip application, which
is not constrained by the HTML language.
The best user interfaces on the web are actually achieved by combining
three technologies, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. HTML deals with structure,
CSS with styling and JavaScript with interactivity.
There is another compelling reason to use CSS other than obvious
design related benefits. As mentioned, HTML was not really designed
for style, position and layout. However, as the world wide web developed
webmasters were forced to use HTML to achieve exactly that. The
resulting HTML code could be quite bloated and complex, this can
have a detrimental affect on the performance of a website. CSS means
this bloat can be removed and code can be streamlined and made more
maintainable with significant ongoing benefits in terms of time
and cost when it comes to updating the website.
|
