There is this popular CSS framework that I wanna complain about (not attack or contact them, of course, just kvetch about it here) but I simultaneously feel like I don’t wanna, because they don’t break any web standards and there are no accessibility issues (unlike SPA frameworks). It’s a little bandwidth-wasteful but I don’t really care, that’s fine.
The framework I have in mind is only bad (just a really bad and self-foot-shootingly way to make web) for the devs that use it, and if they can stomach it, it doesn’t hurt anyone else. I mean, if you use it you are fucking up royal and there are probably a lot of things wrong with your entire pipeline and it’s a sign that something has gone seriously wrong with how we teach web and make tools for web, but, those things only hurt yourself.
So I would only be tearing down someone else’s work (the creators of this particular framework) from my own armchair, which I feel is only legit when there’s a standards and/or accessibility and/or political issue, and there isn’t in this case. My instincts are so often to tear down bad things when it’s so much better to build up good things.
If I want good CSS, I should instead lead by example, write good CSS, make tools for writing good CSS, and write about how to write good CSS, instead of just tearing into a bad CSS framework without having good alternatives readily available.
In other words, this is a rare case of the it’s no big deal if someone is wrong on the Internet xkcd actually applies because while they are very, painfully wrong, it doesn’t really hurt me or anyone else except sympathetically, so I should just let it be.
The analogy is seeing someone build a bicycle painstakingly with a toothpick instead of with good tools. If the bike still works, all else is moot.
I could be warning my dev friends about the framework but if they’ve painted themselves into a corner so deep that they’re actually considering it, I don’t wanna restrict their options further with armchair advice. Again, what I should be doing is STFU and write constructive posts instead of this, and the same goes for my previous post on it.