
Can we stop bad-mouthing CSS in developer talks, please? - halfear
https://www.christianheilmann.com/2016/10/05/can-we-stop-bad-mouthing-css-in-developer-talks-please/
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pjall
The problem with CSS, as far as I'm concerned, is not that it cannot solve the
task, but that it isn't intuitive and that you need to be aware of lots of
'tricks'/workarounds to get fairly simple concepts to work.

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Veen
Yeah, it's hacks built on top of hacks, and even with all its complexity, it
still doesn't come close to the state of the art in print layout and type-
setting from centuries ago (although that's not just the fault of CSS).

But the sort of talks that the writer is talking about annoy me too. CSS is
rubbish but most people know that already. It's unimaginative and lazy to
constantly repeat it. However rubbish it is, we still have to deal with it for
the moment.

These days I just think of CSS as a low-level language that is best left to
compilers and so on. In the same way I don't want to hand-code Abstract Syntax
Trees, I don't want to write CSS when I can use a higher-level alternative
that spits out decent CSS.

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FloNeu
Maybe someone should learn to take a joke... I consider myself a 'real' ( what
does that even mean ) software developer - working on web-sites/apps since 15
years - starting my path doing web-design, adapting css as it came out... IT
WAS IMPRESSIVE AND AWESOME ( because there hasn't been anything good before
)...

But I have to say i am still learning and running into stuff i have done a
1000 times - unable to understand why this is working - only to uncover one
statement which breaks everything... BECAUSE CSS HAS TERRIBLE INTRANSPERANT
CONCEPTS AND QUIRKS ( Not all are its own faults, looking at you IE ). Also
some of them have arisen because it's not used what it was made for - styling
documents of text... Not all the fancy stuff we miss-use it today.

CSS is an old friend here to stay - he can for sure take a joke ( sometimes a
beating ) and so should you. I usually enjoy these talks :)

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triplesec
I'm not bothered about people badmouthing something that really ought to have
been superseded, but I really do appreciate the videos included of what appear
to be good CSS practices which might help me for when I do the occasional
layout for simple projects. For that, I find this a useful blog post.

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mobiuscog
Why should CSS be different from any other language ?

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Veen
I think the point of the article is that people shouldn't rude about CSS
because it makes web developers and designers sad. It implies a divide between
them and "real" developers who sneer at something they use every day. More of
a social critique than a technology critique.

~~~
mobiuscog
And yet we have many 'web developers' constantly telling 'real' developers how
Javascript is the best thing ever, and all of these 'old' languages are
outdated.

Why is JSON praised, but XML shamed ? Java is old, bulky and slow, but
Javascript is the answer to everything ? The debate goes both ways.

The correct answer is that all languages, etc. are suitable in the correct
scenario, and none should be 'special', whether that be praised above all
others, or condemned.

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rajeemcariazo
This reminds me of the saying: There are only two kinds of languages: the ones
people complain about and the ones nobody uses

