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"CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

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Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#81

Post by antoniuschan99 »

bavell wrote: post #51
Osiris wrote: post #32

I cannot look at a UI design and intuitively know what CSS attributes would generate that exact output. I think part of it for me is that I do not have an intuitive understanding of the box model and how layouts are calculated. On top of that, since CSS cascades, you have to be able to mentally keep track of all the parent attributes to understand how they affect a specific element on the page. I was working on a Rea…

> I ended up just playing around with putting attributes on various components until I found what worked. It's sometimes hard for me to wrap my head around flexbox as well. If you haven't already seen it, this page [0] is imo the flexbox bible. There's one for grid [1] too. [0] https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/ [1] https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/complete-guide-grid/

Also add in flexbox froggy and css grid garden

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#82

Post by anonzzzies »

spaniard89277 wrote: post #21
oldstrangers wrote: post #10

I don't understand the CSS confusion. Maybe because I've been doing it for 15+ years but it's extremely intuitive to me and I love working with it. Tailwind annoys me because it removes some of that flexibility / freedom for me to just solve a problem immediately with a new class or something.

I don't understand either. I understand that CSS can be tricky sometimes, but more difficult than Assembly? Well, admittedly I have no idea of assembly or pretty much anything outside of your typical web stack, but it seems more difficult to me from the distance. Not to mention game devs doing GPU stuff. I regret committing to programming with 30yo, in my 20s I probably would have the time and energy to learn much mo…

I can do working assembly on paper or in my head, css I cannot. So yep, easier. I have similar amount of experience with both, I just don’t consider css logical. While most assembly is (there are exceptions of course, but talking about pure assembly).

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#84

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

Osiris wrote: post #32

I cannot look at a UI design and intuitively know what CSS attributes would generate that exact output. I think part of it for me is that I do not have an intuitive understanding of the box model and how layouts are calculated. On top of that, since CSS cascades, you have to be able to mentally keep track of all the parent attributes to understand how they affect a specific element on the page. I was working on a Rea…

> I ended up just playing around with putting attributes on various components until I found what worked.

I think that's what everyone actually does when doing CSS.

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#85

Post by eviks »

Vanderson wrote: post #5

Advanced results require advanced skills. CSS is one of my favorite languages. And the only way I can consider CSS to be difficult is if you have no experience with HTML. If you try to do HTML by hand, then doing CSS by hand on top of HTML by hand is really easy and wonderful. And this is truly where you gain the fundamental framework for "getting CSS".

Great design is precisely what allows lifting the requirements for advanced skills. Poor design resorts to manual editing of ugly markups

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#86

Post by JoeyJoJoJr »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #84
Osiris wrote: post #32

I cannot look at a UI design and intuitively know what CSS attributes would generate that exact output. I think part of it for me is that I do not have an intuitive understanding of the box model and how layouts are calculated. On top of that, since CSS cascades, you have to be able to mentally keep track of all the parent attributes to understand how they affect a specific element on the page. I was working on a Rea…

> I ended up just playing around with putting attributes on various components until I found what worked. I think that's what everyone actually does when doing CSS.

Even as a pretty experienced front-end developer I would often times ask myself “how the heck will I do this”. A lot of that changed with flex box and then css grid. “gap” especially has made is easier the formulate a plan without just poking at CSS and hoping it works.

That said, pretty basic things like truncating text and making sticky components still trips me up every time.

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#87

Post by herbst »

oldstrangers wrote: post #10

I don't understand the CSS confusion. Maybe because I've been doing it for 15+ years but it's extremely intuitive to me and I love working with it. Tailwind annoys me because it removes some of that flexibility / freedom for me to just solve a problem immediately with a new class or something.

Same here, it's like a weird language where I've spoken and seen all the edge cases. Still remembering hacks for IE6 and still felling good not doing them

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#88

Post by 66yatman »

Osiris wrote: post #32

I cannot look at a UI design and intuitively know what CSS attributes would generate that exact output. I think part of it for me is that I do not have an intuitive understanding of the box model and how layouts are calculated. On top of that, since CSS cascades, you have to be able to mentally keep track of all the parent attributes to understand how they affect a specific element on the page. I was working on a Rea…

Skill issue

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#89

Post by Sateeshm »

gingerlime wrote: post #42

slightly OT but can someone recommend how to learn CSS in 2023 for a backend web developer, who 30ish years ago grokked mainframe Assembly reasonably well (and since then developed in c, php, python, ruby, bash, etc etc)? Can/do I start with tailwind? Do I start with old-school CSS or jump straight into flexbox? Do I need to care and learn about BEM, Sass, etc? Do I start with an empty page and build it? Do I need to…

https://web.dev/learn/css

Re: "CSS is dramatically more difficult than learning assembly language" [audio]

#90

Post by oliwarner »

Osiris wrote: post #32

I cannot look at a UI design and intuitively know what CSS attributes would generate that exact output. I think part of it for me is that I do not have an intuitive understanding of the box model and how layouts are calculated. On top of that, since CSS cascades, you have to be able to mentally keep track of all the parent attributes to understand how they affect a specific element on the page. I was working on a Rea…

Not a flex —and that wasn't an intended pun— but when you've been doing it 20 years, all you see is layout-modelling options.

Getting good takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.

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