[Javascript] using multiple class names

[Paul Novitski]

At 06:32 AM 5/26/2004, Mike Dougherty wrote:
>I'm already naming most of my objects with Id attributes.  Are there any 
>caveats against using the id reference in CSS? ex: #ID1 {*style*}  This 
>formatting is not DHTML (en/dis-abled, etc.) so it won't need to be 
>referenced dynamically.  So rather than using a class name with only one 
>member, I figured I could just use the #ID syntax.  I did see a reference 
>to this being "limited" somehow, but it wasn't explained why.  Any thoughts?


I myself haven't run into any problems using object ids as CSS selectors.

My personal guideline is simply: if I need to distinguish a single object 
on the page, I give it an id; if more than one object can fit into the same 
category, I give it a class:

         <div id="bookmenu" class="dropdown">

         <div id="chaptermenu" class="dropdown">

         <p class="caption">

I guess it all depends on whether you conceive of the object as unique or 
belonging to a type.
___________________________

One advantage to giving the outermost container an id is that it lets you 
control its nested inner objects merely by their tagname:

         #topmenu ul li a {}
         .body p span {}

I find this greatly reduces the number of classes & ids I need to embed in 
my HTML.
___________________________

Tangentially, I used to code my CSS using the HTML tag consistently:

         div#topmenu {}

but have lately taken to dropping the tag from CSS:

         #topmenu {}

when the specific tag I've chosen (div or p or span or whatever) isn't 
pertinent to the structure.  That way I can always change the tag if I need 
to without having to modify the CSS.  I guess that could be an argument for 
using id & class selectors exclusively, but I love the brevity of coding 
CSS with tagnames (#menu ul li ul li a).

In CSS-D, Peter-Paul Koch just brought up a problem he discovered with 
Mozilla recognizing the .test:hover selector, so I guess it's not safe 
always to drop the tag name.


Cheers,
Paul

PS: This discussion is Off Topic and probably should be scooted over to 
another forum.  I personally enjoy CSS-D admin'd by Eric Meyer:
http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d