Hasty Treat - Uses for CSS Variables

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about CSS variables, a.k.a CSS Custom Properties - why you might want to use them, why they're better than various preprocessor's variables, and pitfalls to watch out for and avoid.

Kyle Prinsloo teaches you everything you need to know about freelancing, including how to quit your job, earn a side-income and start taking control of your life. Check it out at https://studywebdevelopment.com/freelancing and use the coupon code "syntax" at checkout to get 25% off.

Show Notes

3:25 - What

--example-name, represent custom properties
called using var()
Overwrite with a more specific style
Use JavaScript to append .style.setPropert(
How are they scoped?
- Just like normal CSS
- Can be set on :root {}
- Can be set on any element down

9:10 - Why

Uses:
- Can make more sense if used semantically
- var(--accent) vs var(--yellow)
Independent values for things that can’t be broken up:
- box-shadow: 2px 2px 2px 2px red
- transform: rotate(var(--rotate)) scale(2);
Inline properties can be picked up by regular CSS (color, size, etc.)
- <p style=”--color:red;”>hey</a>
Themes that can easily be changed at runtime for entire app

19:15 - Calculations

You can use them inside of calc()
Animations

20:10 - Bummers

Not super well supported just yet (IE 11)
No good fallback other than manual fallback
Syntax - Old Browsers, Fallbacks and Polyfills series
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
PostCSS Custom Properties

Tweet us your tasty treats!

Scott's Instagram
LevelUpTutorials Instagram
Wes' Instagram
Wes' Twitter
Wes' Facebook
Scott's Twitter
Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

Playing: 097: Hasty Treat - Uses for CSS Variables

Is JSDoc Better than TypeScript?

Nothing in CSS - 0 vs 0px, no, none, hidden, initial and unset

Supper Club × Matt Rothenberg and Idan Gazit on Github Next

The New Syntax Site × Ingest, Stack, AI and more

JavaScript.exe - Standalone Executables

Supper Club × Bramus Van Damme on CSS

Potluck × JR Devs & Copilot × CSS Variable Limitations × SvelteKit

Why Is node_modules So Big?

Supper Club × Adam Argyle on What's New in CSS

Where Should You Host Your App? Hosting Providers Compared

WTF Are Signals And Why Is Everyone So Hot On Them All Of The Sudden?

Supper Club × Dylan Jhaveri - Video for the Web and MUX

UI Elements - Basics, Best Practice, and Built Ins

Bluesky + AT Protocol

Supper Club × Zach Lloyd from Warp

RPC in JavaScript!

Supper Club × Privacy, Cookie Banners, GDPR with Donata and Hans Skillrud

Potluck × Crypto × SEO × Status Pages × Learning Tools

CSS Color Functions

Supper Club × ESLint with Nicholas Zakas

Can Vanilla CSS Replace Sass Yet?

Modals, Popups, Popovers, Lightboxes

Supper Club × Nate Weinert and Tamagui

600th Episode! Major Announcement and Swag Giveaway!

oAuth APIs Explained

Supper Club × Fabian Kägy - Modern WordPress - Blocks, Page builders, Headless, Custom Fields

Stump’d Gameshow! Answering Coding Interview Questions from AI

The New Import Map Standard

Supper Club × Web Components and Lit with Justin Fagnani of Google

Potluck × Testing Animations × Tools for Learning × Coding Related Injuries

Coding with the Open AI / Chat GPT API

Supper Club × The Role Of UX Designers In Humanizing The Future with Travis Neilson

Potluck × Learning Web Dev × Video Streaming × Mono Repos

HTTPS + Tunnel Your Localhost - Cloudflare Tunnels, Ngrok, and more!

Supper Club × Next.js on AWS + Serverless with Dax Raad

New Syntax Website Brainstorm! IRL!

Web Streams Explained

Supper Club × Digital Nomad with Eric Sartorius

Fundamentals × What Makes a Website Slow?

Node in the Browser × WebContainers + NodeBox

Supper Club × Visual Coding Languages With Steve Sewell

AI and Coding with ChatGPT

Clean vs Sloppy Code

Supper Club × Astro 2.0 with Fred Schott

Warp Terminal × Next Gen Terminals

Logging

Supper Club × Solid.js with Ryan Carniato

Potluck × Native Web Components × JS Class Mixins × Application Secrets

Save us from Config File Hell

Supper Club × Qwik framework from Miško Hevery, the Creator of Angular

Converting JS to TypeScript

Polish and Perf

Supper Club × Rust In Action with Tim McNamara

Node.js CJS → ESM

CSS Wishlist

Supper Club × Caleb Porzio

We React to State of JS 2022

Container Queries Explained

Supper Club × Simen Svale Skogsrud and Espen Hovlandsdal from Sanity

Potluck × JS Modules × HTML Tags × Recession × Budgeting

Buy It or Build It? A Service is Not a Solution

Supper Club × Katherine Mello on Liberal Arts → Coding, Bootcamps, and Sustainability

2023 Goals × Learning and Doing

TypeScript Fundamentals × Satisfies and as const

Supper Club × Sarah Drasner on Engineering Management

Our Predictions for 2023

TypeScript Fundamentals × Type Narrowing, Guards, and Predicates

Supper Club × Polypane with Kilian Valkhof

Were We Wrong? 2022 Predictions Revisited

Desktop Apps in JS × Electron and Tauri

Supper Club × Switching into Coding and climbing the Pommade ladder with Kenneth Lyerly

Potluck × Twitter Thoughts × Business Models × Senior Developer

“Serverless” Databases

Supper Club × Remotion React Video with Jonny Burger

JavaScript in 2022

Rendering Methods Explained

Supper Club × Coding at Disney with Vu Le

Code Styles × Readable Rules and Petty Preferences

GitHub Next Projects