Roger,

You never need to touch or inspect the files in default/files/css. Ever. They are not part of the development process. Leave them alone and forget about them.

Whenever you are doing any development at all, css compression MUST be turned off:

In Drupal 6 it is set at: admin/settings/performance
In Drupal 7 it is set at: admin/config/development/performance

In short:
  1. Look in theme .info to see last css file called
  2. Turn off css compression
  3. Add css to last css file called
  4. Clear drupal caches (you may need to clear browser cache in some cases, especially with Chrome)
  5. Test
  6. Repeat 3,4, and 5 until satisfied.
  7. Turn css compression back on.
Shai

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 5:07 PM, Roger <arelem@bigpond.com> wrote:
<snip>
 So all your CSS tweaks should go into the very last CSS file that is
called. Calendar css would be found in the calendar module. But all
module CSS is called before your theme css, and you don't want to hack
the calendar module. In your theme, go to its .info file and see the
order of the css files called and find the last one (it's typically
style.css or local.css). Put your changes in there. Clearing cache is
always a good thing.
</snip>

I'll look in .info, had not thought of that, thanks.

My observations/tests so far.
--Clearing Cache does not clear the files in /default/files/css.
--I do not know where to look for discussion on this /default/files/css
and the erasing of files therein. Do they regenerate with modified css
code if erased?
--It seems that the css in /default/files/css is th last called,
according to firebug.
--css in this file overrides the css elsewhere in some but not in all cases.
--Altering css code in these files has no effect on the display.
--Altering css in the calendar module has no effect on the display while
the /default/files/css is present.
--Altering the css in /files/css with firebug changes the display but
making the same alteration the file does not.
--None of the above seems to apply with other modules and themes.

More testing
Thanks to all who help
Roger
--
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