Building CSS from authoring style sheets

A build system of some sort is required to compile the authoring style sheets into plain CSS.

Tip

There are many tools available to perform this task e.g Grunt, Gulp, and Brocolli to name just a few. However, just as there is no universally right CSS processor, or CSS methodology, so there is no universally right build tool.

Besides merely compiling authoring style sheets into CSS, good tooling can provide further benefits.

• Linting: To enable code conformity and prevent non-working code reaching deployment
• Aggressive minification: Rebasing z-indexes, converting length values to smaller length values e.g. (while 1pt is equivalent to 16px it is one less character), merging alike selectors
• Autoprefixer: To enable fast and accurate vendor prefixing and prevent vendor prefixes being present in the authoring style sheets

Tip

For considerations of what is deemed essential, syntax-wise, in style sheet authoring, refer to Chapter 8, The Ten Commandments...