Susy Next, Alpha 4

I don’t have a lot of time to delve, but let me run through some of the changes and new features in Susy Next alpha 4 – as well as alpha 3, which never got a blog post. You can see the full list of changes in the Susy Next Changelog, and we’ll work on examples as we start writing docs.

If you haven’t already started using a Susy Next alpha, read the alpha 2 introduction first to get a sense of the new syntax and approach.

In addition to the new features, we’ve added comprehensive unit test tests using True, which we built for the occasion. We also have a set of complex nesting tests that show how things work in practice. Right now, the test folder provides the best documentation – with index.html showing the True results and ag.html showing several standard grid-types. Explore, download, and play!

New Features:

• Added gutters mixin to apply gutters as margin or padding on an element.
• Added outer keyword to include gutters in any returned width. This replaces the Susy 1 space mixin.
• Added container function to return a given container’s width.
• Added auto keyword to any grid argument as a setting for $container-width. This will use $column-width settings to calculate a container, or fallback to 100%.
• Added show-columns and show-baseline keywords for controlling background-grids. The show keyword will display both.
• The gutter function now returns half-widths when using split or inside gutters.
• Added margin/padding mixins from Susy 1: prefix, suffix, pad, pre, post, push, pull, and squish. They work pretty much the way you expect them to, although there’s a small issue we’ll be fixing in the next release (alpha 5).

Backwards Incompatible Changes:

• Renamed $isolate setting to $layout-method, which no longer accepts a boolean, only the isolate and float keywords.
• Renamed $static setting to $layout-math, which no longer accepts a boolean, only the static and fluid keywords. Fluid is used for both Susy 1 fluid and magic styles, depending on the presence of a $column-width setting.

New Features:

• Added a bleed mixin. This works similar to bleed in Susy 1, but accounts for gutters as well (unless you pass the no-gutters keyword). Currently only inside gutters are being incorporated, but that will be fixed along with the issue linked above.
• Added a $last-flow setting to control the flow direction of row-ending elements. It accepts either to of from. This is similar to $omega-float in Susy 1.
• The span mixin now accepts nested @content, so you can nest styles directly in a new context.
• Added inside-static option for static gutters in otherwise fluid grids.
• gutters mixin uses span syntax, accepts explicit gutter spans.

Backwards Incompatible Changes:

• grid-background, grid-overlay, grid-background-output, & $grid-background-color have been renamed to remiain consistent and avoid conflicts with Compass:
  • grid-background => background-grid
  • grid-overlay => overlay-grid
  • grid-background-output => background-grid-output
  • $grid-background-color => $grid-color