4 ms·

Why the World Needs CSS Developers

17 points by eldad_fux 7y ago

elad2412 7y ago
This is one of my most important articles, on the issue of why I think the web industry is going in the wrong direction, hope you will like it
- burnte 7y ago
  "CSS 3, unlike CSS 2.1, is an open standard, which means that it is continuously updated. " No, that means it's unencumbered by licensing. It being a living document means it's continuously updated.
- eldad_fux 7y ago
  Really liked the article. It shows an interesting new perspective of how dev teams are working today and how they could benefit from having dedicated CSS developers.
altmind 7y ago
Is this the author's github? https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412
- guessmyname 7y ago
  > Is this the author's github? https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412 Medium accounts are inherently linked to Twitter accounts. The author of the article is using @elad [1] which maps 1-to-1 to Twitter [2]. In their Twitter profile there is a link pointing to their personal website [3]. Their personal website has a link to their main GitHub account [4]. GitHub account @elad2412 was created on July 01, 2012. GitHub account @SaladFork was created on July 22, 2009. [1] https://medium.com/@elad https://medium.com/@elad [2] https://twitter.com/elad https://twitter.com/elad [3] https://blog.eladshahar.com/ https://blog.eladshahar.com/ [4] https://github.com/SaladFork https://github.com/SaladFork
  - elad2412 7y ago
    Just to correct the last 2 links are wrong, these are my other links: [3] https://eladsc.com https://eladsc.com [4] https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412 (My github isn't my main thing)
jmnicolas 7y ago
If CSS is so complex that you can only be good at it at the exclusion of other fields, maybe it's too complex ?
- p410n3 7y ago
  What do you wanna do about it? Remove CSS?
  - jmnicolas 7y ago
    Make it less complex. CSS 4 maybe.
zoontek 7y ago
This article is wrong about React: it does not generates unreadable CSS class names. CSS in JS libraries do. By default, using only react + react-dom, you can achieve the exact same output as "handwritten HTML + CSS". But CSS in JS is not bad either: it generates unique class names by using murmurhash on rules and it makes a lot of sense in a component approach (you can see it like an automatic BEM method). Even better: The main pain point of this approach (runtime cost) will soon entirely disappear. Linaria already provides a solution, Facebook will soon roll is own (called StyleX for now). It will create a stylesheet file with atomic CSS rules (one rule per class) and replace the classNames directly at compilation time, offering deduplication, eliminates of dead code and maintenability without sacrificing performances. IMHO a huge step in CSS development.
butz 7y ago
Not every website has to be "an app". You can build pretty functional presentational websites and blogs using CSS only for front-end. I'm going as far as replacing client side scripts (e.g. google analytics) with server side alternatives for my small projects. And with features like lazy image loading already supported by browser this really makes front-end developer life easier.
dpix 7y ago
Styling, layout and Dom composition are so tightly coupled that being a CSS only developer would be impossible. Particularly in the react world where everything is JavaScript, good luck trying to write a component and pass it on to someone else styling it. I agree that the scope of a front end developer is becoming very expansive, having to worry about accessibility concerns along with styling, performance, architecture is hard, but good teams usually cover all these things well enough combined.

17 points by eldad_fux 7y ago

This is one of my most important articles, on the issue of why I think the web industry is going in the wrong direction, hope you will like it

burnte 7y ago
"CSS 3, unlike CSS 2.1, is an open standard, which means that it is continuously updated. " No, that means it's unencumbered by licensing. It being a living document means it's continuously updated.
eldad_fux 7y ago
Really liked the article. It shows an interesting new perspective of how dev teams are working today and how they could benefit from having dedicated CSS developers.

altmind 7y ago

Is this the author's github? https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412

guessmyname 7y ago
> Is this the author's github? https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412 Medium accounts are inherently linked to Twitter accounts. The author of the article is using @elad [1] which maps 1-to-1 to Twitter [2]. In their Twitter profile there is a link pointing to their personal website [3]. Their personal website has a link to their main GitHub account [4]. GitHub account @elad2412 was created on July 01, 2012. GitHub account @SaladFork was created on July 22, 2009. [1] https://medium.com/@elad https://medium.com/@elad [2] https://twitter.com/elad https://twitter.com/elad [3] https://blog.eladshahar.com/ https://blog.eladshahar.com/ [4] https://github.com/SaladFork https://github.com/SaladFork
- elad2412 7y ago
  Just to correct the last 2 links are wrong, these are my other links: [3] https://eladsc.com https://eladsc.com [4] https://github.com/elad2412 https://github.com/elad2412 (My github isn't my main thing)

jmnicolas 7y ago

If CSS is so complex that you can only be good at it at the exclusion of other fields, maybe it's too complex ?

p410n3 7y ago
What do you wanna do about it? Remove CSS?
- jmnicolas 7y ago
  Make it less complex. CSS 4 maybe.

zoontek 7y ago

This article is wrong about React: it does not generates unreadable CSS class names. CSS in JS libraries do. By default, using only react + react-dom, you can achieve the exact same output as "handwritten HTML + CSS". But CSS in JS is not bad either: it generates unique class names by using murmurhash on rules and it makes a lot of sense in a component approach (you can see it like an automatic BEM method). Even better: The main pain point of this approach (runtime cost) will soon entirely disappear. Linaria already provides a solution, Facebook will soon roll is own (called StyleX for now). It will create a stylesheet file with atomic CSS rules (one rule per class) and replace the classNames directly at compilation time, offering deduplication, eliminates of dead code and maintenability without sacrificing performances. IMHO a huge step in CSS development.

butz 7y ago

Not every website has to be "an app". You can build pretty functional presentational websites and blogs using CSS only for front-end. I'm going as far as replacing client side scripts (e.g. google analytics) with server side alternatives for my small projects. And with features like lazy image loading already supported by browser this really makes front-end developer life easier.

dpix 7y ago

Styling, layout and Dom composition are so tightly coupled that being a CSS only developer would be impossible. Particularly in the react world where everything is JavaScript, good luck trying to write a component and pass it on to someone else styling it. I agree that the scope of a front end developer is becoming very expansive, having to worry about accessibility concerns along with styling, performance, architecture is hard, but good teams usually cover all these things well enough combined.