CSS and Javascript project code guidelines

project-code-guidelines.txt

All:
- Indent work with tabs. No spaces unless lining up variables or objects vertically.
- View your whitespace and make sure your editor cleans it up.
- Use UTF-8 encoding with UNIX line endings. No exceptions.

CSS:
- Indent your CSS to denote selector is a child of or extends the previous selector. Comment extensions.
- Name classes sensibly using hyphens if necessary. No CamelCase.
- Order properties sensibly - 1. layout 2. text 3. backgrounds - is a common pattern.
- No inline hacks or parsing bugs; put it in to the right stylesheet.
- Enhance sensibly. Use duplicate rules that will fall back; A CSS parser ignores what it doesn't understand.
- Run test code through CSSLint or Page Speed to pick out obvious bugs (this also means keeping selectors short and using pre-defined font sizes and colours as much as possible)
- If you over-specify or use pseudo-element or  attribute selectors leave a comment to explain why it is necessary.

Javascript:
- Keep jQuery factory selectors as simple as possible (IDs, tags and classes) and use traverse methods when necessary E.G. $this.find('.something')
- Cache jQuery objects if you need to access them more than once.
- Prefix jQuery object variables with a dollar sign E.G. $this = $(this), that = 'that';
- Use the most efficient method for binding data and events in context (usually $.delegate and $.data).
- Test using JSHint to avoid obvious bugs.
- Use JSDoc to comment methods and provide an example if relying on existing or building a new markup structure.
- Don't just throw a plug-in at a page to solve a problem. Any plug-ins used must be evaluated and agreed by all developers.