Here's why I have no interest in trying Tailwind:
- It's a DSL within a DSL, which as a rule of thumb I always avoid because it means circumventing any static analysis within the main language. The rest of my complaints are mostly derived from this fundamental issue.
- It reminds me (not in a good way) of bootstrap classes circa 2011
- Unlike styled components, there is no static typing or intellisense as it circumvents the TS compiler. I'm sure Tailwind has its own solutions to this problem, but I have enough tooling to deal with already
- It's an arcane "language" that needs to be learned in addition to every other language in your codebase, which makes it difficult to onboard new devs
- A string value containing a long list of short identifiers does not make for readable nor maintainable code
- In 2033, CSS will still be around. Nobody knows whether Tailwind will be, but if "reminds me of bootstrap" is any indication, the ecosystem will not be thriving.
- It's not easy to remove from your project if you decide you don't want to use it anymore (unlike solutions that use CSS or object syles, which can be more readily swapped between frameworks, e.g. migrating from MUI to Emotion or from Emotion to CSS modules)
- None of the problems it purports to solve are recognizable to me
I know that people like Tailwind, but frankly I don't see why, and I suspect there may be some element of stockholm syndrome driving its popularity. And I'm always skeptical of any technology with culty vibes around it.
As for me, my preferred solution is either CSS modules or emotion.js, using either CSS or styled objects, both of which are fully supported by intellisense and typechecking, and are based on a 25 year old standard language instead of a 3 year old DSL within that language.
- It's a DSL within a DSL, which as a rule of thumb I always avoid because it means circumventing any static analysis within the main language. The rest of my complaints are mostly derived from this fundamental issue.
- It reminds me (not in a good way) of bootstrap classes circa 2011
- Unlike styled components, there is no static typing or intellisense as it circumvents the TS compiler. I'm sure Tailwind has its own solutions to this problem, but I have enough tooling to deal with already
- It's an arcane "language" that needs to be learned in addition to every other language in your codebase, which makes it difficult to onboard new devs
- A string value containing a long list of short identifiers does not make for readable nor maintainable code
- In 2033, CSS will still be around. Nobody knows whether Tailwind will be, but if "reminds me of bootstrap" is any indication, the ecosystem will not be thriving.
- It's not easy to remove from your project if you decide you don't want to use it anymore (unlike solutions that use CSS or object syles, which can be more readily swapped between frameworks, e.g. migrating from MUI to Emotion or from Emotion to CSS modules)
- None of the problems it purports to solve are recognizable to me
I know that people like Tailwind, but frankly I don't see why, and I suspect there may be some element of stockholm syndrome driving its popularity. And I'm always skeptical of any technology with culty vibes around it.
As for me, my preferred solution is either CSS modules or emotion.js, using either CSS or styled objects, both of which are fully supported by intellisense and typechecking, and are based on a 25 year old standard language instead of a 3 year old DSL within that language.