Tailwind is a set of utility CSS classes you can use that tend to guide you into writing CSS that looks like it "fits" together. E.g., consistent gaps if you use `gap-1`, `gap-2`, etc., rather than a hodgepodge of "hmm did I use margin-right: 2px or 1em or what" that can emerge in a large CSS codebase with many developers. We can use a `m-1` or `p-1` class to define a base padding, and as long as everyone knows that `1` is the amount of space to use by default, everything will generally look like it fits together.
Later, you can optionally redefine what `1` means if you want more space in your design. In a way, using tailwind can be like variablizing your CSS at compile time (in a faster way than just using writing and using CSS variables).
For a lot of things, using just 1-3 tailwind classes on a div is sufficient for many common tasks, e.g., `flex flex-row gap-1` boom done. You can put this directly in the HTML, and is considered "fine".
This is everything needed to make a button look nice in tailwind, and obviously it would be insane to copy+paste this every time you want a nice looking button in your HTML (not to mention the byte size, it's just unreadable).
The best thing to do is define a `.btn` or `.button` (usually I might avoid `button` DOM level selector for future flexibility) and encapsulate these styles as a semantic component in your .css file. You can write them with raw CSS or `@apply bg-zinc-100 border ...;` using tailwind style @apply.
This is what DaisyUI provides you, a shortcut to common nice looking UI components.
> In a way, using tailwind can be like variablizing your CSS at compile time
Isn't this what SCSS or Sass did though? They were around long before tailwind. Is there a reason to pick Tailwind over those? I assume most projects were using them then decided to migrate to tailwind once it became popular, but why did that happen? Was it just keeping up with the cool kids or some actual differentiating features?
I still just handwrite my frontend code so I'm rather ignorant on this topic, it seems like a lot more extra hoops than just writing by hand which actually isn't very difficult (but I'm a single dev on rather smaller projects)
Tailwind is just a set of utility classes (that also tends to be compiled), while SCSS is a full-on CSS compiler that offers no utility classes by default.
A lot of the features that SCSS enabled are now natively part of CSS, so it has fallen somewhat out of favor (because: why compile when you can use the same features for free without compiling?). Nesting is in CSS now, which was the killer feature at the time. & scoping too. Variables especially are better in raw CSS because you can re-assign them and have them transition/animate, which is not possible in SCSS. SCSS helped to evolve CSS.
I initially thought Tailwind was very stupid, but after using it, it is somewhat freeing to write some "1-off inline CSS" (essentially) on the DOM node itself. Sometimes inline CSS is OK (and it's nicer to do so with an easy to remember and powerful utility class rather than via `style=`).
For some, it eliminates `MyComponent.css` that has literally 1 rule with 1 style inside it. Colocation with the DOM in some cases making it easier to modify + reason about, less context switching.
It's not supposed to, the big value of those is variables and combining rules together in a modular way. You'd define your own gap-1. It's not supposed to be a design system.
If I recall, the low effort way to do it in the past was to bring in another CSS framework eg. bootstrap, bulma, foundation, etc. So it seems, tailwind has brought it all together along with the improvements that were mentioned
Later, you can optionally redefine what `1` means if you want more space in your design. In a way, using tailwind can be like variablizing your CSS at compile time (in a faster way than just using writing and using CSS variables).
For a lot of things, using just 1-3 tailwind classes on a div is sufficient for many common tasks, e.g., `flex flex-row gap-1` boom done. You can put this directly in the HTML, and is considered "fine".
An example from DaisyUI's site is:
``` <button class="bg-zinc-100 border font-semibold text-zinc-900 text-sm px-4 duration-200 py-2.5 transition-all hover:border-zinc-300 hover:bg-zinc-200 focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:outline-zinc-900 active:translate-y-[0.5px] inline-flex gap-2 rounded-sm active:border-zinc-300 active:bg-zinc-200 active:shadow-none text-center align-middle cursor-pointer border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-700 dark:bg-neutral-700 dark:text-zinc-300 dark:hover:border-zinc-950 dark:hover:bg-zinc-950 dark:focus-visible:outline-zinc-200 dark:active:border-zinc-950 dark:active:bg-zinc-900"> ```
This is everything needed to make a button look nice in tailwind, and obviously it would be insane to copy+paste this every time you want a nice looking button in your HTML (not to mention the byte size, it's just unreadable).
The best thing to do is define a `.btn` or `.button` (usually I might avoid `button` DOM level selector for future flexibility) and encapsulate these styles as a semantic component in your .css file. You can write them with raw CSS or `@apply bg-zinc-100 border ...;` using tailwind style @apply.
This is what DaisyUI provides you, a shortcut to common nice looking UI components.