In Defense of Utility-First CSS

by Sarah Dayan

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Me Our CSS Conﬂicting media queries !important styles Styles that seem to do nothing but we’re too scared to remove

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HTML Do I need to display the Algolia logo when I am on the Free plan ? " justify-between items-center mx-24 py-16 border-solid border-b border-telluric-blue-opacity-10 text-telluri underline transition-fast-out" href="/doc/faq/accounts-billing/do-you-offer-a-sandbox-for-development-and-a class="block mr-16"> Do you offer a Sandbox for development and a staging environment? " " " " Does A " How does Algolia count records and operations? "

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HTML Look at me! " " UTILITY-FIRST CSS

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HTML Look at me! " " COMPONENT-FIRST CSS

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You, maybe

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In Defense of Utility-First CSS DOTC SS 2019 SARAH DAYAN | SO FTWA RE ENGINEER @ A LGOL IA

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01010101 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00100000 01000011 01010011 01010011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01110111 01100101 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00101110 The myth of separation of concerns

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CSS Zen Garden is a technical demonstration, not a best practice.

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Strict separation of concerns between HTML and CSS is impractical.

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HTML CSS CSS HTML

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When you think about the relationship between HTML and CSS in terms of "separation of concerns", it's very black and white. Instead, think about dependency direction. Adam Wathan, creator of Tailwind CSS

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HTML

Testimonials"

Read what our awesome customers have to say."

Stephen King"

This utility-first thingy looks legit AF."

Lady Gaga"

I recommended this to all my little monsters."

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CSS .testimonials { color: #c5c9e0; } .testimonials h2 { font-size: 18px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonials h3 { font-size: 14px; } .testimonial-inner { display: flex; } .testimonial h4 { font-size: 12px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonial img { width: 40px; height: 40px; }

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HTML - + +

Testimonials"

Read what our awesome customers have to say."

Stephen King"

This utility-first thingy looks legit AF."

Lady Gaga"

I recommended this to all my little monsters."

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CSS - .testimonials { color: #c5c9e0; } .testimonials h2 { font-size: 18px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonials h3 { font-size: 14px; } .testimonial-inner { display: flex; } .testimonial h4 { font-size: 12px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonial img { width: 40px; height: 40px; }

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CSS - + .testimonials { color: #c5c9e0; } .testimonials h2 { font-size: 18px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonials h3 { font-size: 14px; } .testimonial-inner { display: flex; } .testimonial h4 { font-size: 12px; color: #3a416f; } .testimonial img { width: 40px; height: 40px; }

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HTML

Testimonials"

Read what our awesome customers have to say."

Stephen King"

This utility-first thingy looks legit AF."

Lady Gaga"

I recommended this to all my little monsters."

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CSS works better when used as a library.

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OOCSS by Nicole Sullivan

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HTML

Testimonials"

Read what our awesome customers have to say."

Stephen King"

This utility-first thingy looks legit AF."

Lady Gaga"

I recommended this to all my little monsters."

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Why not stop at component-based CSS?

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HTML

The Shining"

…"

Stephen King"

American author"

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HTML

The Shining"

…"

Stephen King"

American author"

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Complex UI components aren’t that reusable.

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In UI design, the atom isn’t the component.

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Atomic Design Methodology, by Brad Frost bit.ly/2qRoByI

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Reusing small atoms is more resilient.

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JSX const Testimonial = ({ author, img, children }) "=> (

{img "&&

}

{author}"

{children}"

);

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JSX const App = () "=> (

Testimonials"

""..."

This utility-first thingy looks legit AF. " I recommended this to all my little monsters. " "

);

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But it’s like inline styles!

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But the HTML will get so heavy!

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HTML

Tailwind CSS" "

" "

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513.09 KB UTILITY-FIRST 441.67 KB SEMANTIC 34.87 KB 33.69 KB Uncompressed Gzip Brotli 50.36 KB 47.66 KB

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0KB 32,5KB 65KB 97,5KB 130KB CSS size on algolia.com/doc (uncompressed) 50 KB 125 KB Before utility-ﬁrst After utility-ﬁrst