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I'm currently working on a PaaS product called fold.sh (very early days). One thing I'm using that I've seen crop up on this thread is tailwindcss... I've not

I'm currently working on a PaaS product called fold.sh (very early days). One thing I'm using that I've seen crop up on this thread is tailwindcss... I've not used it before but I'm really enjoying it so far. It's not a panacea by any means - it makes no attempt to help you organise your CSS or make it modular so you need to 'bring your own discipline'. For example, it's fairly easy to end up with inconsistent design because it makes it so easy to just add a few custom tweaks here and there. That same feature also makes it easy to duplicate information. That said, for the first time I feel like I can actually iterate quickly on CSS and design in general. That probably says more about me than CSS but I'm having a blast. The fixed set of choices and short/consistent class names mean that I spend less time reading docs and more time iterating, which is great in my book. Maybe it's an approach that doesn't scale well to teams? Maybe I'll regret it later? Can't comment on that yet but it has certainly given me a step change in CSS productivity. The rest of the tech I'm using is all pretty dull, with one exception, which is that I'm using the platform to host itself (the backend at least). Hopefully this doesn't count as too much of a shameless plug but it certainly fits the bill of a 'different approach' as I'm the only user right now!! The (very basic) landing page is here: https://fold.sh/ https://fold.sh/

alpaca128 6y ago
> That probably says more about me than CSS but I'm having a blast. No, that probably is just how CSS is - a pile of decisions based on obsolete or incorrect assumptions that cannot be allowed to change due to backward compatibility. To me Tailwind is just a wrapper that's more reasonable for modern webdesign. Just like TypeScript doesn't change how you're still running JS but it's more pleasant to work with.
- tdfirth 6y ago
  Interesting analogy to TS (which I'm also a fan of). I hadn't really thought about it like that but I think there is truth to it. As you say, the fact is that we've got all of these standards that can't be be changed without breaking the web. Those standards were also first created for a different time, so it's not surprising that some assumptions turned out to be poor. As a result, we've ended up in a place where tools treat those standards as compilation targets. This isn't a bad thing per se but it does lead to a lot of complexity in the tool chain. I think part of why I like tailwind is that it almost feels like I'm using plain old CSS. I get the same amount of flexibility (as much as I need anyway), but I don't feel like there is some great abstraction in between me and the styles I want the framework to produce. At the same time, it's quicker and easier to use. Anyway, I'm aware it's a pretty divisive tool. I see a lot of strong opinions about it on HN! EDIT: grammar

alpaca128 6y ago

> That probably says more about me than CSS but I'm having a blast. No, that probably is just how CSS is - a pile of decisions based on obsolete or incorrect assumptions that cannot be allowed to change due to backward compatibility. To me Tailwind is just a wrapper that's more reasonable for modern webdesign. Just like TypeScript doesn't change how you're still running JS but it's more pleasant to work with.

tdfirth 6y ago
Interesting analogy to TS (which I'm also a fan of). I hadn't really thought about it like that but I think there is truth to it. As you say, the fact is that we've got all of these standards that can't be be changed without breaking the web. Those standards were also first created for a different time, so it's not surprising that some assumptions turned out to be poor. As a result, we've ended up in a place where tools treat those standards as compilation targets. This isn't a bad thing per se but it does lead to a lot of complexity in the tool chain. I think part of why I like tailwind is that it almost feels like I'm using plain old CSS. I get the same amount of flexibility (as much as I need anyway), but I don't feel like there is some great abstraction in between me and the styles I want the framework to produce. At the same time, it's quicker and easier to use. Anyway, I'm aware it's a pretty divisive tool. I see a lot of strong opinions about it on HN! EDIT: grammar