Question

I have found that setting a very basic style reset or style sheet initialization as I prefer to think of it has caused an unexpected result as certain browser defaults were effected. This (me being stupid) led me on a merry dance until I realised that I had turned off the default by employing the reset.

I am now carefully picking through all the pages identifying any other adverse effects.

I suppose that it very much depends on personal preference whether you use a reset or not and I may of course be over thinking this which is the curse I carry. Nevertheless I would like an opinion on whether this is good practice or a good way of over complicating everything.

If it is good practice is there a particular time when it is appropriate to apply a reset.

Eric Meyer’s article reset reasoning made perfect sense to me hence employing a very basic reset. I did not employ the full Eric Meyer reset which of course may well have been my downfall. I am not intending to revisit that at this stage.

However I would like to know going fwd what considered opinion is and whether I should be attempting to apply this in future.

Regards

Answer 1

as certain browser defaults were effected.

Any other defaults that weren’t effected would be a bug, since that’s the whole point of a reset css.

The one bad point about a reset stylesheet (assuming it has no bugs in itself), is that you have to think about the style of every element used.

The good point about a reset stylesheet, is that only you have to think about every element used. Not using one is a bit like working with a colleague you don’t communicate well – it’ll save time when they happen to do things that go well with your work, but whether you are duplicating work or letting some case fall between the gaps and get ignored won’t be obvious.

In practice, it depends upon which of the two philosophies suits a project best:

1. You’re happy for a lot of styles to depend upon the browser default and (the plus of this approach) user settings. You only add what CSS is necessary, and let such things as default sizes and fonts depend on the browser.

2. You strive to have a very precise say on every element.

There are pros and cons to both these approaches, and the pros of the second approach has increased lately, as the mechanism used by browsers for re-sizing text for legibility has changed meaning that more of them resize the whole page rather than just the text (this was a big problem with taking the second approach before – you would either have some settings break your design, or have your design break settings some users depended upon to be able to read it at all).

With the first approach, using a reset sheet smashes through the very philosophy you are taking, ruining everything for you.

With the second approach, using a reset sheet is a good first step to getting going. Any time you find that the reset sheet caused a problem, what you really found was that there was something you should have been doing, that you didn’t do, and it highlighted that problem for you. If you accomplish the second approach without a reset sheet, then you’ve effectively arrived at the same result you would have with it, at least as far as those elements used go.