Conclusions
This article took a close look at three popular CSS Frameworks: YAML, Blueprint CSS and 960 Grid System. I tried to do a fair and accurate side-by-side comparison of the three tools. The layout that I used for each was admittedly simple and there was not time to do an in-depth comparison.
What I discovered was that all three tools are well-written, easy-to-use and very useful. I personally prefer the 960 Grid System but honestly did not find enough difference between the three frameworks to lead me to conclude that choosing one over the others is more than a matter of personal preference.
Very little change was required to the structure of the document with which we started. The only changes were the addition of some class names to existing HTML elements and the addition of fewer than a half dozen DIVs to help with positioning of elements. Semantic web purists won’t like this fact very much, but personally I was pleasantly surprised by how little change to the markup was necessary – even if the changes are not semantically correct.
YAML, it should be pointed out, has a slight edge in terms of flexibility due to the fact that all sizing is based on percentages rather than fixed pixel widths.