[adamlett]

> This makes Tailwind seem like a lot of machinery (in the sense of bundle size, running code, and pseudo-language) just to avoid opening a file at dev time.

It’s not about avoiding opening a file. It’s about avoiding the risk and/or cost that comes from editing a stylesheet that applies globally. If you change existing rules, you risk breaking the layout somewhere you didn’t anticipate. Or, to avoid that, you treat the stylesheet as append-only, leaving you eventually with enormous files and selectors of ever increasing specificity.

Tailwind (or Tachyons) makes for ugly markup, but it solves a real problem, and it does it better than anything else.

[emmacharp]

But can't you do the same with CSS ?

If every selector in a file begins with the component class, isn't it the same as writing styles in the component JS file ? I mean, the only real benefit I see is the forced encapsulation in JS compared to "soft" encapsulation in CSS. But, it's something so trivial to learn and practice that the soft part shouldn't be an issue. And if it is, then it is time to learn some rigour, no ?