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

[zhcalvin]

https://github.com/ruilisi/css-checker

[sam_goody]

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?

[FinalBriefing → sam_goody]

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

[zhcalvin → FinalBriefing]

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

[brianzelip]

> 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.

[zhcalvin → brianzelip]

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

[tropicalfruit]

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

[jamapy → tropicalfruit]

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

[tropicalfruit → jamapy]

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.

[onion2k]

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

[zagrebian]

Since when is CSS a “script”?

[samatman → zagrebian]

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.

[brianzelip → zagrebian]

ie: files