Monica explains how Shadow DOM could be the perfect answer for scoping CSS:
We didn’t have style encapsulation, so we started naming things “the right way” with BEM, so that we didn’t accidentally stomp over each other’s styles. We wanted to be able to author CSS from inside a JavaScript component, so we started using CSS-in-JS. We needed all these tools, because “the platform” (read: the browsers that be) wasn’t there, and building these tools showed that there was a need to move forward. For style encapsulation, Shadow DOM is the platform moving forward.
Although, in a way, Shadow DOM is also another flavour of CSS-in-JS:
Before you complain that using a Shadow DOM and Web Components means that it absolutely requires JavaScript: this is true.
React has become a bloated carcass of false promises, misleading claims, and unending layers of backwards compatibility – the wrong kind of backwards compatibility, as they still occasionally break your fucking code when updating.
Pretty much anything else is a better tool for pretty much any web development task.
Greg has done a lot of research into developer frustrations with customising form controls.
My current thinking in this space, and I know some folks will find this controversial, but I think we should completely standardize in-page form controls with no limitations on their styling capabilities. What do I mean by in-page controls? I am referring to any form control or component that is rendered within the content process. This standardization would include the sub-parts and their related states and how these are exposed (probably through CSS psuedo classes or HTML attributes). This will enable the shadow-dom to be encapsulated while providing web developers with a consistent experience to adjust to match their brand and needs of their site/application.
I really hope that this is the kind of usage we’ll see for web components: enhancements for the browsers that support them without a good ol’ fashioned fallback for older browsers.
Bruce takes a look at the tricky issue of styling native form controls. Help us, Shadow DOM, you’re our only hope!
I like the approach here: logical properties and sensible default type and spacing.
A genuinely inspiring event.
Had you heard of these bits of CSS? Me too/neither!
The joy of getting hands-on with HTML and CSS.
CSS Day 2023 in Amsterdam.
Separate your concerns.