

You know your context – on critical thinking and thinking for yourself - dinosaurs
http://csswizardry.com/2013/01/you-know-your-context-on-critical-thinking-and-thinking-for-yourself/

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politician
The gist of the article -- "I don't know you or your situation; take my advice
with a grain of salt" -- is reasonable. Nevertheless, it's reassuring when
authors take a moment to describe their context -- it might not be clear to
the reader -- or describe the limitations and potential downsides of the
suggested solution, preferably both.

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csswizardry
I do try and do this, really I do :) Right from the image spriting article:

> It is important to note that spriting images won’t always be necessary
> and/or possible. I’m not saying you should do it all the time, and I am
> saying you quite often can’t (fluid images, for example). It’s just another
> possible tool to put in your toolbox.

Any obvious exceptions to the rule – or any obvious contexts in which any
advice would not work – I do try and mention.

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danielbarla
It's a good point in general, however while the line:

> this is _your_ context which is away from the norm

holds really well for the first example (being unable to move away from IDs
due to various constraints), it doesn't seem to hold up so well for the latter
example. I guess most people do care if their logo is not visible when being
printed, and if is hidden in google searches. So, would that mean that it's
the author's context which is away from the norm here?

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csswizardry
Hey, article author here!

The ‘away from the norm’ bit refers only to the first example:

> In the first case […] this is your context which is away from the norm.

It’s not always about the norm, but about differing context. In the second
example the context is balancing performance and semantics. If your context is
more concerned with brand image etc then that’s the difference (nothing to do
with norms, really) :)

(I hope I worded that okay, it felt very clumsy!)

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danielbarla
Thanks for the clarification, and I agree. The article just read as if that
idea was meant to carry over to the second example.

I'll make a point of reading your other posts, they seem to be pretty
interesting.

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csswizardry
> The article just read as if that idea was meant to carry over to the second
> example.

D’oh! I’ll try reword it when I get a chance :)

> I'll make a point of reading your other posts, they seem to be pretty
> interesting.

Cool, let’s hope they deliver!

Cheers for your feedback :)

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jimmaswell
The latest HTML fad is not using IDs now? That's just absurd.

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csswizardry
It’s a CSS thing, and not a fad… I wrote more about it here:
[http://csswizardry.com/2011/09/when-using-ids-can-be-a-
pain-...](http://csswizardry.com/2011/09/when-using-ids-can-be-a-pain-in-the-
class/)

