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Ask HN: Why there are no languages that translate to CSS?

9 points by mrwnmonm ↗ HN
The way Dart and TS are trying to fix JS problems. That language wouldn't just add some features to CSS, it should introduce something completely different but better, since everyone hates CSS.

17 comments

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fmo91
I'm an iOS Engineer so maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't SASS already do that?
mrwnmonm
No, it introduces more features, that all.
Normille
{less} [0]

[0] http://lesscss.org/

mrwnmonm
Man, it literally says "It's CSS, with just a little more." That is not what I mean. I know about less and sass already.
Normille
You also used Typescript vs Javascript as an example of the kind of thing you were looking for. Since TS just 'adds features' to JS, I think the comparison with CSS / Less is valid.

Also "everyone hates CSS" is a bit of an unfounded and simplistic statement to make and may be why a couple of us thought you were asking a pretty uninformed question.

[dead] mrwnmonm
That simple reply turned you to be that defensive? Wow. You are a child.
Normille
I rest my case
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[dead] wryoak
Woah woah woah. Hold the everyone. I like CSS. In fact, I think I like CSS more than any other programming/templating/scripting/computer language I know - yes, indeed, Go blows, Rust sucks, C/++/# are so clumsy, Python, Ruby, Haskell, Closure and Scheme all excel at being crappy. Maybe F# and Elm are kinda okay but they aren't good like CSS.
MildlySerious
It's quite the stretch I know, but for me, on a practical level the answer to getting something better than CSS was Tailwind.

In the biggest project I currently manage, the custom CSS I wrote boils down to maybe 150 lines total of: custom fonts, some ::before/::after styles and styled tags inside a markdown section using @apply. Everything else is just classes in components.

taphangum
100% this.

What OP seems to be looking for is just a higher level of abstraction. So that there's less repetitiveness.

That's exactly what Tailwind does. And does VERY well.

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