Technically this isn’t much of a blog post, but I saw a great quote by Jeremy Keith on the subject of CSS simplicity and wanted to share it as it mirrors most of my own feelings on the subject.
Unlike a programming language that requires knowledge of loops, variables, and other concepts, CSS is pretty easy to pick up. Maybe it’s because of this that it has gained the reputation of being simple. It is simple in the sense of “not complex”, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Mistaking “simple” for “easy” will only lead to heartache.
I think that’s what’s happened with some programmers coming to CSS for the first time. They’ve heard it’s simple, so they assume it’s easy. But then when they try to use it, it doesn’t work. It must be the fault of the language because they know that they are smart, and this is supposed to be easy. So they blame the language. They say it’s broken. And so they try to “fix” it by making it conform to a more programmatic way of thinking.
I can’t help but think that they would be less frustrated if they would accept that CSS is not easy. Simple, yes, but not easy.
Thanks Jeremy for writing something so succinct and eloquent to put across a potentially complex subject.