> See, I know that shipping end-user software - like the Tailwind compiler - if that software is written in an interpreted language - is fucking hard.

This I don't get. This is interpreted code, most web backends integrate node, why not just ship a node module? Why in gods name ship bun.

The whole web development scene has had some of the worst software engineering I've ever seen. With the exception of the Ruby scene, we have Tilt and Nokogiri for these types of things.

I was hesitant to give tailwind a try, like most aging web developers I couldn't stand that it breaks the "cascading" part of CSS.

But eventually I didn't have choice as I inherited a web app that has all of the newfangled build components that web apps come with. I love that we're coming full circle back to MVC with server components.

After getting used to it, I ended up liking Tailwind, mostly because it breaks the cascading part of CSS. There are so many unique parts to webpages these days that I think it makes sense to keep the styles close to their components, as opposed to global cascading components.

I've got a number of vanilla JS, HTML, CSS libraries that work only from within the browser, using the standard tags to include them.

For me, not having a build-step means that, yes, I miss out on typescript, but the upsides are easier to read, easier debugging and lower cognitive burden during both writing and reading the application.

It means I will never, like the author in the article, spend $X weeks, and then spend a further $Y dollars just to build something "modern".

My "modern looking" applications are developed, and then tested, on a machine from 2010 (1st-gen i7) that has 16GB of RAM and oodles of slow spinning-rust disks, and it isn't painful at all.[1]

[1] It is, in fact, quite nice when I see a client use their system from their own PC and it's just a little bit snappier than I am used to.

I have genuinely never understood Tailwind's value proposition, other than as padding for its developers' CVs, at which I assume it excels.

We stopped inlining style attributes for a reason - is this just how the next generation needs to learn?

I try to stay away as much as I can from front-end, because modern front-end is a shit show.

Unless I do the front-end for my own app and then, the order of preference is server rendered HTML, HTMX, Web Components, Vanilla JS. Stuff I am sure I can maintain with ease 100 years from now. For CSS I would use something simple such as bootstrap.

I kind of agree with the author of using tools you know are reliable as opposed to chasing fads. Of course you must and should learn and use new things, but proceed with care and carefully consider both upside and downsides.