WDR #1: Versioned Style Sheets

Published on Nov 15, 2008 (updated Jun 10, 2024), filed under development, css. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)

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Ladies and gents, all I present’s… the Web Dev Report, issue #1:

The Web Dev Report: Versioned style sheets.

Transcript.

(Marked up in reference to § 10.3, which is long since wrong.)

Guy 1:: Hey man, how’s it going?; I gotta tell you… these versioned style sheets damn rock…!; So, like default-20080301.css, default-20080623.css, default-20081012.css…
Guy 2:: (What the $#%@.)
Guy 1:: It’s sooo cool! Every time we modify our main style sheet we just append the date and have only certain pages use that CSS file. No messing with the old #$%@!
Guy 2:: So you treat your one site as several sites?
Guy 1:: Er.
Guy 2:: And with a redesign you want the kick to either update all versioned style sheets or update all documents to use the new default CSS?
Guy 1:: Err…
Guy 2:: And HTML/CSS prototypes are a waste of time and money, right?
Guy 1:: What the $#%@ man, leave me alone!

“Versioned” isn’t known to Merriam-Webster and other dictionaries, but it’s so popular, I decided to keep with it. More importantly, let’s see what happens to the report. Will there be an issue #2?

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, dxsrc). You’ll like my work if you value principled, pragmatic problem-solving. Let’s connect.