| CSS or cascading style sheets refers to a language | | | | inevitably arise. As mentioned before, one of these |
| used to express the desired presentation of a | | | | complexities has to deal with managing different style |
| document written in a markup language. The most | | | | sheets across differently-styled pages of a website. |
| common use of CSS is in styling web pages from the | | | | Comparison and code management tools designed |
| HTML or XHTML that they are written in. For large | | | | specifically for use with cascading style sheets can |
| websites with many pages of differing styles, it | | | | make this job much less tedious. By handling the |
| becomes a chore to manage the different cascading | | | | many different details and letting programmers focus |
| style sheets. For this purpose, many editing tools and | | | | on actual design, these tools make using CSS much |
| difference tools have been developed to manage and | | | | easier and more intuitive. |
| compare cascading style sheet files. | | | | Another possible use for comparison tools lies in |
| CSS is used because of the advantage of separating | | | | debugging a newly-changed CSS file. In these cases |
| presentation from the content. HTML (or other | | | | where two pieces of code are mostly identical |
| markup language) deals with the structure and | | | | except for a few changes, difference tools can |
| content of the document. The associated cascading | | | | quickly highlight the differences. This saves the |
| style sheet would then define the presentation of | | | | programmer the tedium of having to look for these |
| the different parts and components of the | | | | differences manually, line by line. Once these |
| document. This makes it easy to change the look of | | | | differences are found, it then becomes possible to |
| a document without having to alter its content - it | | | | figure out what exactly went wrong when the |
| becomes as simple as applying a different cascading | | | | cascading style sheet was modified or updated. |
| style sheet. | | | | Many of these CSS editors also offer more |
| Any CSS programmer, whether he is a beginner or a | | | | advanced features, apart from letting programmers |
| professional, would benefit from using the editing and | | | | compare cascading style sheet with others. These |
| comparison tools available. For beginners, they would | | | | include the ability to preview the effects of a style |
| be very useful as learning tools. It is often easiest to | | | | sheet, or even edit a style sheet directly from within |
| learn a new programming language by looking at | | | | a browser. Many editors also support the creation |
| actual examples of programs written in that language, | | | | and nesting of custom style groups within a given |
| and this is no less true for CSS. By using these tools | | | | cascading style sheet. All in all, any user or |
| to analyze and compare different examples of CSS | | | | programmer of CSS would benefit from getting |
| code, a beginner could quickly get a basic grasp on | | | | familiar with an editing tool of their choice. With the |
| the language. | | | | many features, such as comparison, management, |
| Professionals, on the other hand, would find these | | | | and synchronization, a good editing tool could prove |
| tools helpful to deal with the complexities that | | | | to be a programmer's best friend. |