DEV Community

Discussion on: TailwindCSS: Adds complexity, does nothing.

Collapse
 
dskaiser82 profile image
Daniel Kaiser

I haven't used. But I do believe solutionism is a problem in the dev community. Either making solutions to problems that don't exist OR brining a tank to a knife fight

Collapse
 
rickmills profile image
Rick Mills

I think it's pretty clear it provided a good solution to a problem, otherwise the company formed on the back of it wouldn't be multi-millions in profit, and it wouldn't have rocketed in popularity past Bootstrap.

Some of the arguments in the article are valid, some are the typical ones we often see from people who've not taken the time to use it (throwing up a 1 page app isnt even close enough to fully appreciate what it can do).

The common arguments such as bloated html and duplication of code often just highlight how much people totally misunderstand Tailwind.

Collapse
 
kerryboyko profile image
Kerry Boyko

I think it's pretty clear it provided a good solution to a problem, otherwise the company formed on the back of it wouldn't be multi-millions in profit, and it wouldn't have rocketed in popularity past Bootstrap.

The #1 seller of hamburgers in the United States has been, for years, McDonalds. Does that mean a Big Mac is the epitome of high cuisine? Does it even mean it's healthy?

Millions of people use PHP, too. That doesn't make it a good programming language, and it doesn't make it a good idea to start a new team project in PHP.

I think you're falling into a rhetorical trap here: a bandwagon argument. A viewpoint can be in the overwhelming vast majority and still be wrong. The popularity of a position doesn't have impact the objective truth of it.

Thread Thread
 
ashleyjsheridan profile image
Ashley Sheridan

Hey, let's not be putting PHP in the same bucket as Tailwind! :P

But absolutely agree, popularity doesn't equate to worth of a project/language/etc. Just look at some of the projects on npm like is-odd (and its counterpart is-even which relies on the former). Thousands of downloads per week to avoid modulus math in our code and make things look "nicer" and more "functional".

Tailwind might have solved a problem, and that's logical to assume so (I've not seen what that problem is, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist), but it also creates its own problems, as you've pointed out. What we need to be doing is more of this, more questioning on our tools, and looking at alternatives that solve the problems in better ways without creating more issues.

Thread Thread
 
kerryboyko profile image
Kerry Boyko

I may be prejudiced on my view of PHP, mostly because I once took a job... an overseas job, too... where the job listing was for a JS engineer, the job interview talked about JS experience, the take-home test was to write a JS front-end (React), the technical interview was conducted in Javascript, and the job title was for "Front-End Engineer"... and then I open up the codebase, and it's 95% PHP.

I explored all possible avenues -- transferring to a different department -- putting transition to Node on the roadmap for the next quarter -- everything. No, apparently I was now the PHP guy on the team.

I lasted two and a half days, and started packing my bags, getting ready to move once again.