When Our Tools Hold Us Back

Lots of good nuggets in here from Miriam Suzanne:

most lengths on the web are defined in px. Is that because authors intentionally avoid em/rem, or because the mockups that we receive from designers are all limited to px by our design tools?

many CSS-in-JS tools and utility frameworks are more invasive – replacing some or most CSS with a proprietary syntax. They don’t provide additions to the language, but a whole new language that stands directly between us and the basic CSS functionality we need

Once the tools stand between us and the language, we become entirely reliant on tool-builders to determine what features are available.

Suddenly CSS is able to move faster than the ecosystem, and we’re stuck waiting on our tools to catch up with well-supported platform features.

This happens with so many dependency-related slow downs.

When tools intervene between you and your access to the web platform, proceed with caution. Ask not only: How well does it work? But also: How well does it fail? Not only: What features do they provide? But also: What features do they prevent?