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Weird. I'm a full time web developer and I honestly don't understand what this library does or why it is useful. I read all the way through the site. I mostly

Weird. I'm a full time web developer and I honestly don't understand what this library does or why it is useful. I read all the way through the site. I mostly use Tachyons, which is definitely a bit outdated. Where does Pollen sit, and what value is it providing? Would love to see some more concrete examples.

tvphan 5y ago
There’s a trend at the moment called design tokens which standardises all the design constraints for your website, e.g. spacing, colours, fonts, etc. Tailwind and I guess this allows for you to build super consistent websites based off of predefined tokens
- stevage 5y ago
  Ok, that's interesting and useful I guess, once you're building a site that gets to a certain scale. Mine don't tend to get that big :)
_Chief 5y ago
I feel it's not by accident you don't understand it. The documentation says that it's heavily inspired by TailwindCSS and calls itself utility-first. However if you've used TailwindCSS or most other utility-first frameworks, you'll find it's not the same (which is ok, but does not get clarified). Pollen uses css variables as the utilities in "utility-first", not classes. So to better understand the docs, take a look at the usage of css variables. Utility-first as used by the most other frameworks (like Tailwind), are based on AtomicCSS. The concept behind it being, as atomic implies, using single irreducible units for each class (a single style). This site[1] provides curated reading resources on the topic. While it is a new concept and still being defined, use of classes as the utilities is the more commonplace usage, hence if writing a framework that does not do that I feel one should make that clear. This means that the Introducing Pollen page will be confusing by design, as it implies use of utility-first CSS but the first example shows a Boostrap-like `.button`. Most other examples on the site also show 1 style classes, also misleading on the classes actually being "atomic". In summary, Pollen is a framework that uses css variables[2] as the utilities. I like what it's doing and watching to see it grow. To better understand the value provided I'd recommend this video[1] on CSS variables, and this framework being a rapid prototyping foundation using the same concepts. [1] https://johnpolacek.github.io/the-case-for-atomic-css/ https://johnpolacek.github.io/the-case-for-atomic-css/ [2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_c... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYZTKxj-do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYZTKxj-do
krsdcbl 5y ago
It's basically providing swatches for CSS values, thus helping to work with a design system instead of arbitrary values. But its nothing you couldn't just set up yourself with your desired variables natively or with CSS preprocessor. Comparing it to tailwind feels like marketing copy

tvphan 5y ago

There’s a trend at the moment called design tokens which standardises all the design constraints for your website, e.g. spacing, colours, fonts, etc. Tailwind and I guess this allows for you to build super consistent websites based off of predefined tokens

stevage 5y ago
Ok, that's interesting and useful I guess, once you're building a site that gets to a certain scale. Mine don't tend to get that big :)

_Chief 5y ago

I feel it's not by accident you don't understand it. The documentation says that it's heavily inspired by TailwindCSS and calls itself utility-first. However if you've used TailwindCSS or most other utility-first frameworks, you'll find it's not the same (which is ok, but does not get clarified). Pollen uses css variables as the utilities in "utility-first", not classes. So to better understand the docs, take a look at the usage of css variables. Utility-first as used by the most other frameworks (like Tailwind), are based on AtomicCSS. The concept behind it being, as atomic implies, using single irreducible units for each class (a single style). This site[1] provides curated reading resources on the topic. While it is a new concept and still being defined, use of classes as the utilities is the more commonplace usage, hence if writing a framework that does not do that I feel one should make that clear. This means that the Introducing Pollen page will be confusing by design, as it implies use of utility-first CSS but the first example shows a Boostrap-like `.button`. Most other examples on the site also show 1 style classes, also misleading on the classes actually being "atomic". In summary, Pollen is a framework that uses css variables[2] as the utilities. I like what it's doing and watching to see it grow. To better understand the value provided I'd recommend this video[1] on CSS variables, and this framework being a rapid prototyping foundation using the same concepts. [1] https://johnpolacek.github.io/the-case-for-atomic-css/ https://johnpolacek.github.io/the-case-for-atomic-css/ [2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_c... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYZTKxj-do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYZTKxj-do

krsdcbl 5y ago

It's basically providing swatches for CSS values, thus helping to work with a design system instead of arbitrary values. But its nothing you couldn't just set up yourself with your desired variables natively or with CSS preprocessor. Comparing it to tailwind feels like marketing copy