Twitter Bootstrap question

[murphaloid]

Hi

I'm still new to development and having a go with Twitter Bootstrap for the first time. Struggling to get my head around some of it, but my (possibly dumb) question is this:

I'm a bit confused by how non-semantic the framework is...at least in the tutorials given on the bootstrap site. How do html5 elements fit into this?

For example, is it ok to turn this....

<div class="row">
<div class="span12">
<h1>Content</h1>
</div>
</div>

...into this...

<div class="row">
<header="span12">
<h1>Content</h1>
</header>
</div>

??? (sorry I cant get the markup to indent on this post!)

And is it bad practice to modify the existing 'bootstrap.css' stylesheet, or should I customize the styles using a separate stylesheet?

Thanks

[ralphm]

There are no rules, as such, but to be honest, using a framework like that is just asking for trouble (in my opinion, anyway). Frameworks like that tend to be a mess and weigh you down with unnecessary complexity and wasted and inefficient code. I'd say you are better off working out how you need the page(s) to work and build your template cleanly and efficiently from scratch. We are always happy to help you with that if you get stuck.

What I've seen of Bootstrap so far has convinced me not to touch it with a barge pole.

[murphaloid]

Thanks for the reply ralph.m

Interesting take on Bootstrap. Ive been reading so many positive things about it, but even as someone who knows very little, Ive had niggling doubts in the back of my mind! Nice to hear an alternative point of view.

Just out of interest, do you personally ever use any css frameworks as a way of time saving, or do you always build from scratch?

[ralphm]

do you personally ever use any css frameworks as a way of time saving, or do you always build from scratch?

Personally, always from scratch. It seems much simpler that way, with no unnecessary code, and no confusion about how the various bits work. I know a lot of people like them, but around here we see so many problems associated with them that I'd never consider using one. I really enjoy CSS and HTML.

[system]