

Weekend Project: Fractionless Boilerplate (HTML/CSS) - billpatrianakos
http://Fractionless.info

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huckfinnaafb
What was your motivation to use fixed pixel widths for grid sections instead
of percentages?

 _"Do we really need yet another boilerplate? Yes."_

Not entirely convincing :P

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billpatrianakos
Haha I know. Just take my word for it! Yes. Period! I'm kidding. I used fixed
pixels because it was easy if you want the honest truth. I'm aware that the
future is all about mobile-first but this started out as a teaching tool for
myself and fixed widths is what I chose back then. I know fixed widths aren't
cool but its a work in progress. I was compelled to finally share something
instead of always using things others had made. Eventually it'll come with a
variety of grids to choose from.

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latchkey
As much as I appreciate creating our own work for all of the fame and fortune
it brings us developers, it seems like Bootstrap (v2.0) and even
Zurb/Foundation is much further along than this project. I can't imagine why
I'd use this over one of those two choices.

Did you consider contributing your time and expertise to an existing project
instead?

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billpatrianakos
They are further along. Very much so. I wouldn't dare think of competing at
this point. I needed to finish something and get it out into the world though
and this was it. I contribute to other projects from time to time but this was
just something I needed to do. Why did I _need_ to? Because I've never done it
before. I expect one half-baked project to lead to more fully-baked, more
useful ones in the future. Part of that is getting feedback like this. I
appreciate it.

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ricardobeat
Grid is broken (chrome 16, mac): <http://imgur.com/a/wefVt>

The total width of the columns is larger than the page body.

Merry christmas :)

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billpatrianakos
Awwwww damn it! I look like a fool now. Thanks for showing me. I'm using
Chrome 16 too on a Mac and it's fine. If you leave the media queries in the
stylesheet (like I obviously did) then what you see in the picture happens
when your browser window width is less than 1140px. Fair warning, I never
claimed this to be fluid. Small screen sizes/mobile devices are the
developer's responsibility - the grid doesn't help you with that. I'll try to
fix that right now though, thank you.

Update: The fix eludes me right now. I knew about it on mobile devices but
never saw it on the desktop. I'll get it...

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Mithaldu
Can't say i find myself very impressed:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10190786/fractionless.png>

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southpolesteve
I don't see any compelling reason to use this over boostrap or foundation

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billpatrianakos
There is none. No one is suggesting that. Bootstrap and Foundation aren't the
be all end all either though. The reason there are so many frameworks out
there is because of the myriad of ways people work. This is just one more.
Most people won't want to use it but if just one person picks it up and makes
it their own then it was worth it.

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ew
1024 resolution is completely broken.

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billpatrianakos
It's made for large screens. 1140+. Is it fair? No. But that's what it is. Hit
Control+- until it fits the screen haha.

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instakill
No responsive design?

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billpatrianakos
Well, looks like this is dying now so I'll say this: I'm glad I didn't get
positive feedback here. I appreciate everyone being civil while still letting
me know this isn't very good. In all honesty, I think I was lazy in putting it
together. Getting this feedback really helped me to figure out what to focus
on next, pushed me to iterate, _and_ it has me motivated to not be so lazy
about it next time around. Maybe this will come around in a few months in a
much improved form. Thanks everyone.

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billpatrianakos
A little background: I could never wrap my head around grid systems. My mind
just didn't work that way, keeping track of columns and whatnot. I was much
better able to work with fractions so I adapted my favorite grid system from
CSS to LESS, added on my own generic HTML5BP customizations and thought maybe
others would find it useful.

I'm a little shy/embarrassed to have posted it here where everyone is probably
working on much cooler stuff but projects build momentum and that's what it's
all about. It's probably not the best boilerplate/framework out there but it
works. I was tempted to wait until it was perfect to show anyone but "real
artists ship", you know?

I'm happy to hear constructive criticism and eager to make it better.
Suggestions are welcome and feel free to fork it or issue a pill request on
github.

Oh, and I was up till 6am Christmas morning to publish the site. Merry
Christmas.

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marquis
If this had fluid grid-resizing support (a la getskeleton.com) we would take a
deeper look at this for new projects. Nice work otherwise. We love Less so
great to see this integrated, hope you get some traction.

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billpatrianakos
It's not really about traction. It's about finishing something, getting it out
there, and iterating. I'll be totally honest, there are some really big
obvious features that this lacks. Like you said, it needs to be responsive.
That's on the list. I've been sitting on this thing for a while so I thought
it'd be a good idea to get it out there. Honestly, we're 4 comments in and I
already have a good idea of what to focus on next. I'm sure that eventually
I'll get it to a point where people are more willing to use it. I will say
that one area it excels is with total beginners. I've had a lot of success
getting CSS newbies to understand layout concepts with this. Anyway, thanks
for the feedback!

