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The biggest issue with CSS I think for many is the emergent complexity from the interaction of different properties. Especially those inherited through the casc

The biggest issue with CSS I think for many is the emergent complexity from the interaction of different properties. Especially those inherited through the cascade. Much of this emergent complexity is not always consistent cross-browser. Additionally, there are often many ways to accomplish the same result but fully understanding the implications of certain approaches over others is also a headache at times. Speaking personally, something touched on in this article, is that many things don't really make sense to me or at least I don't find them intuitive - and I've been working with CSS daily for 14 years. It does often feel like a scatterbrained, horse designed by committee type of thing. It's like CSS only makes sense when you learn to see the problem through the eyes of whomever specced out that particular feature, which can also be said for trying to read CSS written by another developer.

marcosdumay 6y ago
> It's like CSS only makes sense when you learn to see the problem through the eyes of whomever specced out that particular feature And whoever those were, they never ever care about creating a GUI, embedding documents within documents, or reacting to user actions.
onion2k 6y ago
The biggest issue with CSS I think for many is.. ..that they haven't looked at it for years and assume it's still as hard to use as it was when it was new. In any discussion about CSS someone will eventually post that "vertical and horizontal centring is really hard, and that's why CSS is terrible"[1], and all it shows is that their skills are out of date. [1] Seriously, it's as easy as "display: grid; place-items: center;" these days (if the element has width and height somewhere in the cascade).
- philistine 6y ago
  I’m no expert here, but I think the model of always adding new syntax doesn’t help people realize that CSS has gotten so much better.
  - onion2k 6y ago
    Given the choice between making life easier for developers who are too lazy to learn some new syntax and literally breaking the whole of the internet because websites stop rendering correctly with the changed meaning of things, I think I'd side with the adding more syntax. It's not even a hard decision.
- asddubs 6y ago
  nitpick, but if you're just looking to vertically center, you'll have much better browser support (e.g. ie11) doing display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;
- ehaliewicz2 6y ago
  You just mentioned another property that interacts with others, how does that remove the "emergent complexity from the interaction of different properties"?

marcosdumay 6y ago

> It's like CSS only makes sense when you learn to see the problem through the eyes of whomever specced out that particular feature And whoever those were, they never ever care about creating a GUI, embedding documents within documents, or reacting to user actions.

onion2k 6y ago

The biggest issue with CSS I think for many is.. ..that they haven't looked at it for years and assume it's still as hard to use as it was when it was new. In any discussion about CSS someone will eventually post that "vertical and horizontal centring is really hard, and that's why CSS is terrible"[1], and all it shows is that their skills are out of date. [1] Seriously, it's as easy as "display: grid; place-items: center;" these days (if the element has width and height somewhere in the cascade).

philistine 6y ago
I’m no expert here, but I think the model of always adding new syntax doesn’t help people realize that CSS has gotten so much better.
- onion2k 6y ago
  Given the choice between making life easier for developers who are too lazy to learn some new syntax and literally breaking the whole of the internet because websites stop rendering correctly with the changed meaning of things, I think I'd side with the adding more syntax. It's not even a hard decision.
asddubs 6y ago
nitpick, but if you're just looking to vertically center, you'll have much better browser support (e.g. ie11) doing display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;
ehaliewicz2 6y ago
You just mentioned another property that interacts with others, how does that remove the "emergent complexity from the interaction of different properties"?