Been using Tailwind since starting my job 5 years ago where we have a ton of webapps standardized on Angular+Tailwind, and you may have to hop into a webapp you've never heard of before to fix a bug. Couldn't be happier with how much easier it is to build and maintain compared to traditional CSS.
Many many words I've read trying to convince me why I shouldn't be having a good time using it, yet here I am more productive than ever thanks to it. Less experienced devs are by default funnelled into writing code that's easy to understand, only looking at one file, as opposed to people trying to do cute tricks where styles could be coming from anywhere in the project. It's SO much easier when the styles are on the component I'm looking at and I don't have to cross-reference between files. Plus people sticking to increments of 0.25rem instead of everyone using their own preferred units is huge.
When you work at a big company you can't expect everyone will write nice CSS. But Tailwind plays a huge part in making sure everyone writes something that's much more easier for the next person who has to read it.
You'd also be more productive and have less unknowns and potentially less decision paralysis if, say, everyone started using excel hooked up to a database instead of writing their own bespoke CRUD app, but alas, those aren't the reasons one asks programmers to program.
I echo this. For all the supposedly bad things it is, Tailwind provides a level of common denominator in a big team still making sure the CSS at the basic level is nice.
It doesn't even require a big team to be useful—I won't remember how I organized a set of styles a few months from now, and having Tailwind require a minimal set of constraints, and keeping the styles easily editable in the place you use them makes things more maintainable over time.
i appreciate the OP's take and insight but couldn't agree more with this comment.
> yet here I am more productive than ever thanks to it.
i have first hand experience with most of the css frameworks. heck, even wrote a custom scss one at one point, but eventually there's a simplicity (admittedly to a fault at times) to tailwind that just makes you more productive.
> Plus people sticking to increments of 0.25rem ins
this is another really good point that doesn't come through as much. Tailwind also does a fantastic job of picking the right defaults which 90% of the internet won't do.
from the OP's original piece
>> it demands the developer who installs it set up a config file that lays out all codebase-wide style constants: colors, margin sizes, fonts, border radii, etc.
... or importantly, it sets up a solid set of defaults.
Many many words I've read trying to convince me why I shouldn't be having a good time using it, yet here I am more productive than ever thanks to it. Less experienced devs are by default funnelled into writing code that's easy to understand, only looking at one file, as opposed to people trying to do cute tricks where styles could be coming from anywhere in the project. It's SO much easier when the styles are on the component I'm looking at and I don't have to cross-reference between files. Plus people sticking to increments of 0.25rem instead of everyone using their own preferred units is huge.
When you work at a big company you can't expect everyone will write nice CSS. But Tailwind plays a huge part in making sure everyone writes something that's much more easier for the next person who has to read it.