Viewed as an alternative to the ballyhooed Famo.us JavaScript framework, GSS is geared toward boosting Web UI development by fixing CSS's inherent layout issues Looking to improve Web UI development, a company called The Grid is launching GSS (Grid Style Sheets) this week with the goal of overcoming issues with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).GSS is an open source library that leverages JavaScript and HTML5 and is intended to solve UI layout issues, which The Grid describes as one of the most frustrating problems with the Web as a platform. “Bottom line, it’s [intended] to really fix the fundamental problems with CSS, particularly with the layout mechanisms within CSS,” said Dan Tocchini, main developer of GSS and president/CEO of The Grid. Tasks like centering an element with CSS can be difficult, so companies have to hire persons specialized in dealing with the nuances of positioning and layout with CSS, Tocchini noted. “It’s really frustrating. And that’s why you see a lot of websites that look the same.”Developers can choose GSS as an alternative to the Famo.us JavaScript framework, according to Tocchini. While Famo.us treats the browser more like a game engine to get around issues with CSS, GSS takes care of CSS shortcomings. GSS is based on constraint programming, a paradigm where developers focus on declaring the “what” in a program and rely on a mathematical solver to figure out “how.” Constraint programming is a natural fit for declarative languages such as CSS, the company said. GSS extends CSS with new layout languages and replaces the browser’s layout engine, using the Cassowary Constraint Solver algorithm that is used by Apple to compute native layout. “It’s a linear arithmetic constraint solver that solves cyclic dependencies in your layout logic,” Tocchini said.The Cassowary engine behind GSS improves on the CSS layout model, said Alex Russell, a Google software engineer on the Chrome team who helped develop this engine. “[GSS] adds incredible power for developers” to express relationships between visual elements that would have been difficult to do in CSS, Russell said.This story, “GSS fixes the fundamental flaws of CSS,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter. Web DevelopmentJavaScript