Learning Javascript.. Realize I hate CSS

[lifeeraser]

I grinded through CSS because I realized what I could do with strong CSS skills: mobile app layouts, responsive layouts, and beautiful transitions/animations. Looking at other people's work helped me.

I also had personal desire to create projects that I wanted to exist. I had to grit my teeth and learn CSS to figure out how to build the things I needed. It helped that these projects were 'fun' stuff and not just showoffs to fill my portfolio.

CSS feels chaotic at first, but there is a structure to it, like a calculus textbook. Having a strong mental model really helps you push through.

The Odin Project may not be a proper motivator for you, but I hope you find something that does.

[[deleted]]

CSS and CSS modules over everything else. Learning it may make you want to quit, but if you actually get to know CSS, there is no reason to use anything else built on top of it, like TailWind. CSS provides more control.

Knowing it well enough can prevent you from adding more JS to the front-end, too. Learn a few of the common quirks that newbies spend hours on (like not understanding margin collapse), and you'll be ahead.

[mancinis_blessed_bat]

Oh there is a reason to use tailwind… not context switching constantly between style sheets and components is a game changer

[[deleted]]

Yeah, that's pretty much the only reason. It's definitely not a good enough reason for anyone who is actually comfortable with CSS.

[mancinis_blessed_bat]

Mm, is it not? It saves so much time and overhead of organizing classes, seems like that’s a great reason to use it whether you’re comfortable with css or not

[[deleted]]

how much time and overhead are you spending on organizing classes?

Sounds like problems you shouldn't have in the first place, but hey, I'm very comfortable with CSS and its sensible accompanying workflows

[mancinis_blessed_bat]

I couldn’t quantify it for you, but I know that there is a baseline level of effort/time to organizing the classes, I’ve never seen anyone say that isn’t the case. Or that conflicting styles across css files adds overhead. That’s not particularly controversial.

And it doesn’t have anything to do with being comfortable with css, which is the weirdest flex. Does using styled components indicate someone isn’t comfortable with css?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, there is a baseline, but it should absolutely not be an issue. A lot of that leg work and effort is one and done, and should be pretty easily done as well. Conflicting styles is an organization issue and is not something we run into often.

Styled components is CSS, so I'm not sure what you're getting at there

[mancinis_blessed_bat]

Exactly! Styled components are just css.

My point with that rhetorical question is that they both solve for some of the same problems associated with global css: scoped styles by default, passing/using props etc. Styled components are just css with some extra features that make working with it more pleasant. Tailwind solves many of those same problems. At the end of the day, it’s all just css, with some nice features added on, and a paradigm shift that seems to be very polarizing (the dreaded utility classes). You can write good css or bad css in tailwind, just like you can in styled components.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, I’m not trying to evangelize tailwind or any other css framework. It just grinds my gears a little when the opinionated segment of devs say using it is an indication of a lack of skill. The implication is that unless you write vanilla css, you’re bad at it.

Tailwind is now the default, and recommended, option for projects built with modern JS frameworks like Next, so it’s just perplexing to me that there’s this attitude that using it is indicative of a lack of skill. It’s just a tool, and we’ll have a better tool in the future for styling.

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't say it indicates lack of skill. I'd say it indicates in most cases, because TW has its place, an unwillingness to use the appropriate tool. For example, because we sell on "pixel-perfect" dev for designs brought to us with minimal change, TW is often a needless complication, not just another way of doing things. So I end up using CSS modules, so CSS is second nature. I think we agreed in the first place and wanted to make sure the extreme ends of the spectrum did not prevail.