
Can we stop bad-mouthing CSS in developer talks, please - PretzelFisch
https://www.christianheilmann.com/2016/10/05/can-we-stop-bad-mouthing-css-in-developer-talks-please/
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gregjor
I took the time to read your article. My thoughts:

Programmers constantly trash and badmouth _everything_ : languages, tools,
platforms, frameworks. Name anything and there's a vocal group of people who
hate it.

Grow a thicker skin if you want to be taken seriously as a developer. Don't
attach your ego or sense of worth or professionalism to a technology or tool
-- those are transient things. If you take jokes or complaints (or ignorance)
about CSS personally, as you seem to in your article, you're going to get
defensive and feel attacked when they come up. Go to any seminar and you'll
see the same jokes about HTML, Javascript, PHP, etc. Think of them as in-jokes
and bonding, not as personal assaults on your choice of expertise.

I think everyone who works in web development knows that CSS is capable of
amazing things. I think most of us know that you can't expect CSS to wrap and
fit an arbitrary text string into a fixed-sized container. We all know HTML
and browsers have limitations and shortcomings that aren't always clear to
print designers and clients looking at Photoshop wireframes. It's part of the
job, not something to get wound up over.

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enkiv2
Programmers badmouth everything, because the state of programming languages is
a horrifying trash fire and these things deserve to be badmouthed, in the hope
that the same mistakes won't be made next time somebody builds a similar
system.

In other words, if somebody says "stop badmouthing [crappy tool]", it doesn't
just mean they need a thicker skin, but that they value their arbitrary
emotional connection to the tool over the ability for the world to improve.
They would rather have a crappy system that nobody talks about than a good
system.

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gregjor
The same mistakes will be made. The state of software development will never
be perfect until the bots take over. In the meantime it's sanest to stay
reality-based and just deal with what we have. Complaining is mostly blowing
off steam or showing off (as the author says, arrogance).

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enkiv2
His arguments here are really unconvincing. What, we should avoid pointing out
the flaws in a broken tool just because a handful of people have managed to do
something impressive with it? Whatever happened to the spirit of constructive
criticism and general improvement?

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gregjor
When I see the nested <div> tags in modern web pages, mainly to support CSS, I
really wonder, what was wrong with tables again?

