Is tailwind the new de-facto standard what bootstrap was three or four years ago ?
You can use Tailwind to build Bootstrap, like the OP link shows, but you can't do the opposite. I was surprised when browsing the Tailwind docs that they didn't have prebuilt navbar, form, or input classes, but now I realize that's actually the point. You have to build all of those yourself to fit the needs of your project. That's not to say that prebuilt components don't exist at all, just that they're not part of the Tailwind framework project - they exist under Tailwind UI, the commercial offshoot of Tailwind. It's pretty expensive as an indie developer, but I don't mind having to build my own components so it still works out for me.
Although, I guess I don't know for sure until I start to test the product. But the development at least has been a blast.
The "simplest" button apparently contains the following ridiculous number of css classes, which is not the kind of css composition I'm a fan of. It may be the most flexible in terms of customization, but it's a nightmare to mentally parse and maintain. I would not want to manage a code base where nearly every html tag looks like this. :/
<button type="button" class="inline-flex items-center px-2.5 py-1.5 border border-transparent text-xs font-medium rounded shadow-sm text-white bg-indigo-600 hover:bg-indigo-700 focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-offset-2 focus:ring-indigo-500"> Button text </button>
In the more traditional method, you would style a <button> element in a CSS file and never think about it again, while it inevitably becomes part of the CSS nest. If you wanted to use tailwind for a normal non-component based site you'd have to individually style every single button again and again, as there's no cascading and no globally applied styles. I wouldn't use tailwind in that cirucmstance.
But because it's more likely you're using vue/react and your buttons are actually defined as a <Button> component that you re-use, you can write the styles directly on the component where it's used, co-locating the code and making maintenance a bit easier in the process.
Yeah, I also understand Tailwind as inline-styles without it's problems:
* it provides less choices (instead of 256*3 colors you have limited choices)
* classes are (a lot) faster than inline styles in most browsers
* has access to features that inline styles can't (e.g. media queries)
I don't think a css framework that charges 200, 400 or 800 (team pricing) for the standard ui components will ever reach that status.
Tailwind by itself is intended for people who don’t want the pre-made components you get with Bootstrap etc.
It's the 'hot topic that gets eyeballs and talk' but that doesn't reflect the same level of general usage.
A little like Vue got all the articles for a while, and don't get me wrong it's very nice, but adoption generally isn't as high as you might think based on discussion and blogs and etc.