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It's the minor inconsistencies that prevented me from using Tailwind on any serious projects. I've never been able to get past their choice to use text-{color} instead of font-{color}.

That isn't an inconsistency, it's an intentional choice. The color of the text is an aspect of the text, not of the font. The corresponding property in CSS is color, not font-color.

> The corresponding property in CSS is color, not font-color.

So why not color-{color}-{shade}?

Because text-{color}-{shade} is more descriptive of what the color affects. Again color is not an aspect of the font (which is the typeface plus styling like weight, size, etc.) so naming it font-{color}-{shade} would be technically incorrect. (You can argue that ignoring this technicality would result in a cleaner API, but the comment I was replying to was suggesting it was a mistake, which it isn't.)

One person's intentional choice is another's inconsistent mistake. I like to think that's what makes software wonderful yet endlessly frustrating.

presumably it's for consistency with other classes like `bg-{color}-{shade}` and `border-{color}-{shade}`.

But "color" doesn't apply to just text. Changing the color of an element affects the currentColor and applies to default border colors. The property name "color" makes more sense than "text-color" imho.

I just end up context switching to their documentation website to find the syntax they used.

I don't, but I've been using Tailwind for a little while. Once you grok the syntax structure it's not that different to writing CSS.

If it's not that different, then you may as well just write CSS.

The difference is that I can write Tailwind faster, without switching files, and in a way that's always consistent with the rest of the team. That makes it worthwhile for me.

Maintaining is a different story and that is where Tailwind shines.

Maintainability is of course subjective.

Personally, I think this code looks like utter shit, and I definitely would not wish to maintain this.

    <a href="#" class="-mx-3 block rounded-lg px-3 py-2 text-base font-semibold leading-7 text-gray-900 hover:bg-gray-50">Product</a>
    <a href="#" class="-mx-3 block rounded-lg px-3 py-2 text-base font-semibold leading-7 text-gray-900 hover:bg-gray-50">Features</a>
    <a href="#" class="-mx-3 block rounded-lg px-3 py-2 text-base font-semibold leading-7 text-gray-900 hover:bg-gray-50">Marketplace</a>
    <a href="#" class="-mx-3 block rounded-lg px-3 py-2 text-base font-semibold leading-7 text-gray-900 hover:bg-gray-50">Company</a>

This isn't a pathological example constructed to undermine Tailwind either — this code is copied and pasted from their website.

To enjoy tailwind you have to install the vscode plugin so it will speed things up when searching for the right class. Also watch some short tutorial to get an overview. If you don't appreciate it after this then it really isn't for you

And for those that prefer a different editor? Just saying, if a tool then pushes you into another specific tool for maximum efficiency using it, that alone gives me pause.

> And for those that prefer a different editor?

A plugin is likely available for that, too.

I use PHPStorm a lot; https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/tailwind-css.html

Panic's Nova? https://extensions.panic.com/extensions/jasonplatts/jasonpla...

Vim? https://vimawesome.com/plugin/coc-tailwindcss

etc.

Missed the underlying point but I'll make it explicit - if a plugin is "needed" that is also a red flag for me.

I suspect the number of developers with zero plugins in their IDE of choice is vanishingly small.

That said, it's not needed. It's just a quality-of-life improvement, like most other IDE features. You can write a Tailwind site in Notepad, if you prefer.

Oh for sure, and devs should do what is needed to be more efficient and to make their development enjoyable. The poster I was responding to said "you have to install the vscode plugin" to enjoy using Tailwinds. So that's the specific part I was responding to.

I should have said intellisense. Without getting suggestions you do have to go to the docs a lot in the beginning and it is frustrating, but with intellisense I found myself proficient in a couple days and I was among those that din't give an opportunity to tailwind for years. I really wasted time, it works great

If I made a hammer but you need a special glove to use it proficiently, then I didn’t make a very good hammer

Someone who uses a hammer all day may very well decide to use gloves - you'll see a lot of them on construction sites - and they'll probably also opt for a hard hat and safety glasses. Consider these their plugins.

You mean like welding gloves?

As opposed to all those other programming languages/libraries/frameworks for which noone ever benefits by installing a plugin for their editor.

I don't think that analogy holds. If my special hammer let's you go 10x as fast as a regular one, but you need to wear special gloves because otherwise it'll cause blisters, I think I still made a good hammer, just wear the gloves!

Haha - I enjoy tailwind and have no idea what plugin your talking about. What is the name?

Tailwind intellisense by tailwind labs

a lot of this minutiae will be handled by gpt moving forward, and keeping it all in the same file will be helpful for context