[motorest]

> This was not a thing with Bootstrap, and it's not a thing with CSS variables and derived values. This is an organizational tool that increases in value as a multi-platform company grows.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but Bootstrap does support this, doesn't it?

https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.2/customize/css-variables/

Please explain why you feel this usecase hasn't already been supported for years.

Also, other tools such as sass also support this feature.

https://sass-lang.com/documentation/variables/

Can you elaborate why you think this problem isn't a solved problem?

[have_faith]

The point of design tokens is that they sit above your framework and library choices, so it's not possible for bootstrap to solve this as it's a down-stream library. Bootstrap is a consumer of design tokens in that they might be fed into bootstraps css variable system. But in a design token system you wouldn't use bootstrap as a source of truth for these tokens, you want something more flexible and programatically portable than CSS.

[kaelig]

Bootstrap and Sass are for the web. They don't solve the interop problem for Figma/Sketch/Framer/iOS/macOS/Windows/Android/TVs/Watches/Fridges/Cars and what have you.

And that's not even accounting for web styling solutions that don't use CSS variables.

[motorest]

> Bootstrap and Sass are for the web.

Cool, so we establish that the likes of Bootstrap and Sass already solve this problem for the web.

> They don't solve the interop problem for Figma/Sketch/Framer

That's irrelevant, isn't it? I mean, do you run apps straight out of Sigma/Sketch/Framer? Do you also think it's reasonable to call out Photoshop/Gimp/MSPaint?

> iOS/macOS/Windows/Android/TVs/Watches/Fridges/Cars

You're trying to refer to platforms/OSes, aren't you? Do you think it makes any sense to bundle everything together? Those who work on iOS/macOS/Windows/Android/TVs/Watches/Fridges/Cars would certainly look at you perplexed just for suggesting that specifying color schemes even registers as a concern in the whole cross-platform discussion.

>

[kaelig]

> Bootstrap and Sass already solve this problem for the web.

In a vacuum, sure. But products aren't all built in a web-centric vacuum.

> That's irrelevant, isn't it? I mean, do you run apps straight out of Sigma/Sketch/Framer? Do you also think it's reasonable to call out Photoshop/Gimp/MSPaint?

Figma/Sketch/Framer are design and prototyping tools. They are _very_ relevant in how we build products. The back-and-forth between design and engineering leads to better outcomes if both sides speak the same language, and their tools allow them to do so.

(Photoshop/Gimp/MSPaint aren't so relevant un product design)

> Do you think it makes any sense to bundle everything together?

Not everything. You generally want folks using your products across iOS, their car, their TV, and a web browser have a coherent experience. This doesn't mean that everything needs to look exactly the same. It means that key design decisions can be distributed across the board.