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I’ve used Tailwind successfully on several large codebases. It’s the only approach to CSS I’ve used that didn’t make me hate styling HTML.
by cageface 4y ago
I’ve used Tailwind successfully on several large codebases. It’s the only approach to CSS I’ve used that didn’t make me hate styling HTML.
- satvikpendem 4y agoI've often found that people who are in the frontend don't properly learn CSS and just hack it together. That was me too for a long while which is why I hated it. Then I started learning it from first principles and it makes a lot of sense. Now I can build whatever I need in plain CSS classes.
- Kiro 4y agoSaying people use Tailwind because they don't know CSS well enough is simply untrue. I feel like you don't even want to understand why people actually like Tailwind. It's not like you arguing against it will make us stop using something we love.
- satvikpendem 4y agoLots of examples of it online of people using Tailwind because they don't know CSS well enough, it's not even debatable when they themselves literally claim that's why they use it. Even in this thread there are people doing so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34921960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34921960 I understand perfectly well why people like Tailwind. The problem is not initial productivity; indeed, I can write bash scripts too very quickly that make me feel infinitely productive. It's what comes afterwards, the maintenance, the teasing of code written, that Tailwind makes so difficult. And sure, use what you want, but I won't use it.
- twism 4y agoJust not possible to use tailwind without a really good grasp of css
- satvikpendem 4y ago¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Take it up with them, I'm not the one saying it's easier than learning CSS.
- Kiro 4y agoI have a really hard time seeing someone use Tailwind as a shortcut because they don't know CSS. That comment does not say what you think it is. They are not saying they use it because they don't know CSS. The maintenance is what makes Tailwind awesome. I've written CSS professionally since Internet Explorer 6 and have gone through many different strategies for writing maintainable CSS (BEM, OOCSS, SCSS and multiple different CSS-in-JS methods) but Tailwind is the first time I actually feel relieved of all the issues. To me, it's such an enormous improvement from normal CSS that people arguing against it feels like someone trying to convince me not to use syntax highlighting.
- satvikpendem 4y agoFunny, to me arguing for Tailwind is like arguing for copy pasting code around instead of using functions and classes, which the Tailwind devs literally tell you to do by the way. I mean, when I saw their official recommendation for maintenance of code and reusing styles was to use multiple cursors, I had to laugh out loud. https://tailwindcss.com/docs/reusing-styles https://tailwindcss.com/docs/reusing-styles
- cageface 4y agoNo it's more like functional programming with small, single-purpose elements. Semantic CSS is more like object oriented programming with big bloated classes with poorly designed and leaky abstractions.
- satvikpendem 4y agoI'm not sure what type of functional programming you're doing but I've never come across Tailwind like abstraction analogs in Haskell.
- Kiro 4y agoThe point is that I will never go back to not using syntax highlight, and I'm sure you understand that it would be futile trying to convince me otherwise. I wouldn't take anyone doing that seriously, and similarly I can't take you seriously. Yes, being able to copypaste self-contained HTML with all styling included and no depedencies is amazing.
- nisegami 4y agoTailwind classes map very directly onto CSS properties and those properties and their values for all tailwind classes are very prominently displayed in the Tailwind documentation. There are going to be some classes that do a bit more for you than set a property, but they're not the majority.
- kaba0 4y agoSo you claim that CSS itself is easy to maintain? Because I very much disagree with that.
- satvikpendem 4y agoIt is, again, if it's scoped.
- cageface 4y agoI've often found that people that want to criticize Tailwind immediately dismiss anyone that likes it as lacking understanding of CSS. I've been writing CSS since 1997 and tried every fad technique that's come along. Tailwind is the first one that didn't make me dread dealing with CSS.
- satvikpendem 4y agoThat's all well and good until you have to maintain it at scale. I'd rather take regular CSS.
- cageface 4y agoI guess you missed the part where I said I have used it successfully on several large codebases?
- satvikpendem 4y agoSo have I. So now who's anecdotal evidence wins? It really is what it comes down to, isn't it?
- monkey_monkey 4y agoThis isn't about winning dude. Some people like Tailwind and find it incredibly helpful. Some people don't. Some people actively despise Tailwind. No one has to 'win'. All these opinions can coexist.
- satvikpendem 4y agoThat was the point of my rhetorical question. When comparing anecdotes, no one "wins" because both are unprovable.
- cageface 4y agoI'm not the one arguing that a particular technique doesn't scale or that its advocates don't know what they're doing. Of course you can build big things with semantic CSS. You also can with Tailwind.
- 10xDev 4y agoTailwind only extends on CSS, so I fail to see how one can fail to understand CSS but like Tailwind.
- satvikpendem 4y agoConcepts like cascading aren't really present in Tailwind.
- kaba0 4y agoThank God.
- kaba0 4y agoCSS makes sense, but it will still f*ck up a completely different page than the one you are working on because that property you changed somehow got tangled with that shitty Angular stylesheet and it was only spotted in prod.
- satvikpendem 4y agoAgain, only if you don't work with scoping. On any other React project, we do.