However, if I were a younger version of myself getting started now I might read this comment I'm writing at length and get totally turned off from even trying t

However, if I were a younger version of myself getting started now I might read this comment I'm writing at length and get totally turned off from even trying to do frontend development. Don't worry, it doesn't take your comment to turn people off from front-end development. For me it just took the dual experiences of a) knowing what normal programming looked like, and b) trying to apply anything that I had learned about good software development to CSS. Quite frankly, CSS has been a misguided mess since day one: if a layout engine is so weak and underpowered at doing layout that we need to rely on HTML and Javascript anyways in order to do common layout tasks, then why shoot for the separation at all? Further, we end up relying on things like SCSS to be able to productively and maintainably use even the limited functionality that's there, which just makes me nuts. Now instead of a single full featured view layer, I'm dealing with four different types of code, that all end up touching each other, and that's even assuming I have managed to comprehend the insane positioning model that CSS uses in the first place, which makes even simple everyday layout tasks require extensive fiddling and debugging...? Screw that, I'll stick to programming using actual programming languages, and leave the CSS to someone that doesn't despise every goddamn character that makes up the spec that it (sometimes, at least when the browser makers can follow enough of it to implement it correctly) follows.