Provide support for the new Node-less Tailwind CSS // Then default to Tailwind?
Tailwind CSS can now be used without Node (details: https://tailwindcss.com/blog/standalone-cli). Other frameworks like Phoenix and Rails already provide support for this new Node-less Tailwind, with Rails creator DHH being particulary excited about it. Both he and Phoenix creator Chris McCord are gradually trying to wean their frameworks off Node completely. This is a nice process of simplification – why use Node if you don't have to?
If this feature gets implemented, I then have a secondary suggestion for IHP: make Tailwind CSS the default styling framework rather than Bootstrap. As a frontend dev myself, I contend that while Bootstrap SEEMS easier at first than Tailwind, if you're a backend dev you will never feel properly in control of your CSS with Bootstrap. Whereas with Tailwind, if you are prepared to put some effort into improving at CSS (which Tailwind helps enormously with by the way - speaking from personal experience), you can take full control of the styling in your apps, and making changes to that styling become far easier. This is an initially slightly harder path to take, but with far better long-term rewards.
Happy to discuss this more here, and would be interested to hear other points of view.
Hi! Also big fan of tailwind and use it on every project.
Does it work when you need essential plugins via the nodejs ecosystem, for example @tailwindcss/forms as well?
I think unfortunately that keeps me dependent on the nodejs ecosystem for tailwind in IHP, but would be great to do without.
Yeah, I correct myself: It seems to be included in the standalone version. Apparently the standalone is not the same as nodePackages.tailwindcss in nixpks.
Would be nice if the standalone was packaged into nix
Hi Lillo! Nice to find another Tailwind fan here. :) I've been fortunate enough only to use Tailwind when it's all been pretty much got ready for me in advance, or has required only a tiny amount of configuration, eg in Phoenix, Rails and Svelte/SvelteKit. So thanks for clarifying on how forms would work.
Can Tailwind code be generated in IHP if you switch over to Tailwind, like the way it is generated for Bootstrap now? If not, that's something I'd be interested in getting involved in once I'm more familiar with IHP. (Very much a noob right now.)