Getting Started With Foundation 6

1.3 What's Changed Since Version 5?

Let's see what is changed from Version 5 of the framework. First of all Version 6is much lighter. The CSS comes in at around 50 kilobytes while the JavaScript is around 90. Compare that with 165 kilobytes for the CSS and 109 kilobytes for the JavaScript files of Version 5 and you are looking at almost 50% width reduction, that is impressive. And you can lower this number even further by removing unwanted components. This is something new in Foundation 6, you get a customize page. Here you choose which components you want to use and also set some handy defaults like the number of grid columns, text direction, or the colors you want to use. Next, the navigation component has been reworked. It's more flexible now, much easier to code, and modular which means you can easy add a various components to it. Now, the CSS files are much smaller because CSS itself is much simpler. You now have fewer base styles in Foundation 6. You have the bare minimum, so you can start styling over that much easier. Another novelty is the introduction of a Flexbox powered grid system. You can still use the traditional float-based grid, but if you want horizontal and vertical alignment or automatic sizing, you can try out the new one. However, be careful about browser support because Flexbox is pretty new so it doesn't play ball with older versions of IE and Android Browser. Also new is a desktop app called Yeti Launch. This will help you get up and running as fast as possible by giving you the option to create a foundation project right from your desktop. It's currently available for Mac only with Windows coming soon. Finally, Version 6 has another great addition called motion UI. This is a Sass-based animation library, it's customizable and it has a bunch of built-in animations and transitions. These are just a few of the new features in Foundation 6. Obviously, there are a lot more but for that, I invite you to check out the homepage of Foundation 4 sites, and read all about it there. Now, let's find out how we can work with Foundation by having a closer look at their YETI launch app. That's coming up next.