Over the years, I've built a handful of tools, frameworks, and odd little utilities to make my own development life easier. Some of them stayed in the drawer. Others made it into real projects. One of them — a lightweight CSS library I called kernel.css — has lived quietly on GitHub Pages for a while, but now I've decided to work on an update.
Why I built kernel.css
Back when I was working on a simple open source p2p chat and VoIP app, I needed something simple: a clean foundation for styling web apps and sites, without having to fight against opinionated frameworks. I didn't want a bloated UI kit — I wanted a base. Although, in retrospective I realized that kernel.css was way to ambitious, and thats why for v2 I'm focused more on real-world value and usability. It's mostly a CSS library for making websites and simple web apps, and probably not the best choice for complex applications.
If you're building a complex app, I would probably look into something like React.
But on the other hand, if you need something that is simple and easy to understand, kernel.css would probably be easier to pick up and use.
From the Ionogy GitHub to the christian-dale GitHub
I originally hosted kernel.css on the Ionogy GitHub, but I've been moving my projects to my personal GitHub account. It's cleaner, more organized, and lets me showcase my work more effectively.
Still evolving
Like all of my projects, this one is not "finished". It's usable, but it's not done, and might never be. That's the point. I evolve the tools as I grow. If you want to contribute, the repo's available here: https://github.com/christian-dale/kernel.css
There you'll find the SCSS source files, the build process (npm run build), and some examples. It's not a big project, but it's functional. And maybe It's useful to someone else too.
The bigger picture
This small move is part of a larger shift of bringing more of my projects under one roof, consolidating my work, and putting it all under one identity. Not fragmented across GitHub, SoundCloud, and random subdomains without any clear linking between them. My website, christiandale.no aims to solve this issue, and serves as a central place that connects all my work.
This website uses kernel.css as its base, and although it's not a full-fledged UI kit, it provides the foundation I need to build a clean, functional site.
Thanks for checking it out. If you use kernel.css, or want to suggest improvements, I'd love to hear from you.
Regards,
JCD