Makesurearuledoesn’tendupintheuniversalcategory!
3.2、Don’tqualifyID-categorizedruleswithtagnamesorclasses
IfyouhaveastylerulethathasanIDselectorasitskeyselector,don’tbotheralsoaddingthetagnametotherule.IDsareunique,soyou’reslowingdownthematchingfornorealreason.
BAD-button#backButton{}
BAD-.menu-left#newMenuIcon{}
GOOD-#backButton{}
GOOD-#newMenuIcon{}
3.3、Don’tqualifyclass-categorizedruleswithtagnames
Similartotheruleabove,allofourclasseswillbeunique.Theconventionyoushoulduseistoincludethetagnameintheclassname.
BAD-treecell.indented{}
GOOD-.treecell-indented{}
3.4、Trytoputrulesintothemostspecificcategoryyoucan!
Thesinglebiggestcauseofslowdowninoursystemisthatwehavetoomanyrulesinthetagcategory.Byaddingclassestoourelements,wecanfurthersubdividetheserulesintoclasscategories,andthenwenolongerwastetimetryingtomatchasmanyrulesforagiventag.
BAD-treeitem[mailfolder="true"]>treerow>treecell{}
GOOD-.treecell-mailfolder{}
3.5、Avoidthedescendantselector!
ThedescendantselectoristhemostexpensiveselectorinCSS.Itisdreadfullyexpensive,especiallyifaruleusingtheselectorisinthetagoruniversalcategory.Frequentlywhatisreallydesiredisthechildselector.TheuseofthedescendantselectorisbannedinUICSSwithouttheexplicitapprovalofyourskin’smoduleowner.
BAD-treeheadtreerowtreecell{}
BETTER,BUTSTILLBAD(seenextguideline)-treehead>treerow>treecell{}
3.6、Tag-categorizedrulesshouldnevercontainachildselector!
Avoidusingthechildselectorwithtag-categorizedrules.Youwilldramaticallyincreasethematchingtime(especiallyiftheruleislikelytobematchedmoreoftenthannot)foralloccurrencesofthatelement.
BAD-treehead>treerow>treecell{}
BEST-.treecell-header{}
3.7、Questionallusagesofthechildselector!
Becarefulaboutusingthechildselector.Ifyoucancomeupwithawaytoavoidhavingtouseit,doso.Inparticular,thechildselectorisfrequentlyusedwithRDFtreesandmenuslikeso.
BAD-treeitem[IsImapServer="true"]>treerow>.tree-folderpane-icon{}
RememberthatattributesfromRDFcanbeduplicatedinatemplate!TakeadvantageofthisfacttoduplicateRDFpropertiesonchildXULelementsthatwishtochangebasedoffthatattribute.
GOOD-.tree-folderpane-icon[IsImapServer="true"]{}
3.8、Relyoninheritance!
Learnwhichpropertiesinherit,andallowthemtodoso!WehaveexplicitlysetupXULwidgetrysothatyoucanputlist-style-image(justoneexample)orfontrulesontheparenttag,anditwillfilterintotheanonymouscontent.Youdon’thavetowastetimewritingarulethattalksdirectlytotheanonymouscontent.
BAD-#bookmarkMenuItem>.menu-left{list-style-image:url(blah);}
GOOD-#bookmarkMenuItem{list-style-image:url(blah);}
Intheaboveexample,thedesiretostyletheanonymouscontent(withoutunderstandingthatlist-style-imageinherits)resultedinarulethatwasintheclasscategory,whenthisrulereallyshouldhaveendedupbeinginthemostspecificcategoryofall,theIDcategory.
