Is CSS pretty easy to learn.. I am a php developer, but I have always been interested in programming with CSS. I have do some CSS programming but have never took the time to really learn it. If you already know how to program, how long would it take to learn CSS?
I'd say not very long. My background is in vb.net, and I picked up css pretty quickly. Having a good resource to refer to helps alot as well.
Once you find a well documented one so that you understand what you need to do and how to to do it, you are on a roll, until you realize IE does not play fair.
actually everyday is a learning curve for me...i thought im already good at it but then i always learn new things abou css.
It can take a while, as with any client-side technology. The main thing you have to realize when working with CSS is how dependent it is on HTML and the DOM (treating each block-level HTML element as an object really helps).
There are so many factors involved. I've seen people basically pick it up over a weekend of study and practical application while others can take 6 months plus learning it. If you are already a php developer I imagine you will be able to pick it up pretty fast.
CSS isn't a programing language- it's just an extension of HTML that controls the position and appearance of tags. It makes it easier to manage the appearance and style of your website, and to make huge changes very easily. It also potentialy cuts down on HTML 'clutter', making it easier to write/modify your HTML, and - ulitmately I guess - making your pages slightly faster to load. (which can be a favourable factor with Google, I gather..). It can also eliminate lots of tedious javascript for anchor rollover effects. It took me a few days to get the basics of CSS, but that was two years ago and I'm really still learning. The syntax is relatively easy to learn, but the art is how to APPLY that syntax to get beautiful web pages. I'd highly recommend the O'reily book on CSS written by Clive Meyers - can't remember it's name but you should be able to google it. The front cover is a couple of Salmon. (All O'reilly books are characterised by a different animal on the front cover). An interesting example of CSS in action can be found at www(dot)csszengarden(dot)com. Bear in mind that each of the pages on this site have the SAME HTML code - only the CSS stylesheet changes. It's pretty remarkable. Good luck , and have fun with CSS Meow Purr.
Don't you mean "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" by Eric Meyer? While I will agree that CSS is not a programming language, it is most definatley NOT an extension of HTML. HTML is a structural markup language, whereas CSS is a presentational markup language that can work with more than just HTML. CSS is also capable of handling far more advanced features than anchor rollovers and dropdowns. Not only can it lay out an entire Web site using the exact same HTML (as you mentioned along with your link to the CSS Zen Garden), but it can also handle advanced client-side scripting techniques such as star matrixes, as Paul O'Brien demonstrated on Search-This.com not too long ago: http://www.search-this.com/2007/05/23/css-the-star-matrix-pre-loaded Bear in mind the example I gave is not complete, as it only deals with the front-end. One of the other Search-This contributers will be writing an article to compliment this technique to illustrate how to plug such as CSS based star rating system into a back-end script that won't require any JavaScript whatsoever.
There was one that came out LONG before Paul O'B's one though... http://komodomedia.com/blog/index.php/2005/08/24/creating-a-star-rater-using-css/ (august 2005) So I'm not sure why he gets all that praise for the search-this one..
Well, it took my a weekend to get to know CSS pretty good. Before I learned CSS I barely knew HTML, so for you as a programmer I don't think it would take that long to get the hang of CSS.