Today is day 7 of my 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives series, where I'll be exploring open source alternatives to proprietary software in the categories of Game Development and Multimedia, Development Tools and Platforms, Productivity and Collaboration Tools, and more. If you'd like to see the list of the open source alternatives I'll be covering this month, head over to my 29 Days of Open Source Alts Page or check out my bonus lists: open source games and API Development Tools.

A Tale of Two Electronic Signature Platforms

It's time to enter the ring as two heavyweight champions face off: DocuSign and Documenso. In one corner, we have the reigning champion – DocuSign, the established player with years of experience in the eSignature market. In the other corner, emerging contender Documenso brings a fresh perspective, aiming to disrupt the industry with its innovative open source approach.

People definitely have opinions about Tailwind. There are staunch supporters and staunch haters, but I really don't want to get into all that. Head on over to Twitter if you want to waste some time.

If you're pretty well versed with Tailwind, this article might not be for you, but who knows? Read on and maybe you'll learn something.

I'm coming in with what, I think, is a fresh perspective. I'm using Tailwind for the first time professionally. Furthermore, I don't consider myself a CSS expert, but I think I have pretty solid CSS skills.

I mention all this, to convey a sentiment, I've seen many people exhibit. You're using Tailwind because you don't understand CSS. I do understand CSS.

So the first thing that I've seen when people say when they do not like Tailwind, is that it's not CSS, or it's inline CSS. This is completely false, even coming in as a newbie to Tailwind, all Tailwind is, at the end of the day, once it's compiled, is CSS utility classes.

Comparisons​

So let's look at some comparisons between Tailwind and "real" CSS. I'm going to put the vanilla CSS in a style tag, but you could also put it in a .css file and link it in the head of your HTML or however your application bundles CSS. This is just for the sake of comparison.

First Glances of Tailwind​

Vanilla CSS

{% raw %}
<style>
  .my-list {
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    gap: 1.5rem;
  }

  .my-list li {
    border-width: 1px;
  }
</style>
<ul class="my-list">
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
  <li>Item 3</li>
</ul>
{% endraw %}

Tailwind

{% raw %}
<ul class="flex flex-col gap-6">
  <li class="border">Item 1</li>
  <li class="border">Item 2</li>
  <li class="border">Item 3</li>
</ul>
{% endraw %}

So the first thing someone might say is that Tailwind is repeating the border CSS class on a list item, <li>, instead of using a selector that can target the li DOM elements. This is true, but Tailwind allows you to create the equivalent of .my-list li. You can do the following:

{% raw %}
<ul class="flex flex-col gap-6 [&_li]:border">
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
  <li>Item 3</li>
</ul>
{% endraw %}

This is probably where someone might say, "Well, now you're just writing inline CSS." This is also false. It will generate a CSS rule based on the [&_li]:border CSS class name. It will compile it to literal CSS that will generate an equivalent CSS rule comparable to the CSS rule for the .mylist li selector.

In fact, this is what it compiles to. I've formatted it since it gets minified.

{% raw %}
.\[\&_li\]\:border li {
  border-width: 1px;
}
{% endraw %}

You could make an argument that the "real" version looks nicer, but this isn't a strong argument, and you have CSS source maps if you open the browser dev tools.

I'll say it here and repeat it again later. Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework. It's not inline CSS.

If you want to see an example of this in production grade code, check out a recent pull request (PR) of mine to the OpenSauced app repository.

Styling pseudo-elements​

What about something more complex like pseudo-elements? Let's take the ::before pseudo-element for a spin.

Vanilla CSS

{% raw %}
<style>
  .pizza-time::before {
    content: attr(data-inset-label);
  }
</style>
<p data-inset-label="🍕" class="pizza-time">OpenSauced is awesome!</p>
{% endraw %}

Tailwind

{% raw %}
<p data-inset-label="🍕" class="before:content-[attr(data-inset-label)]">
  OpenSauced is awesome!
</p>
{% endraw %}

Here's what it generates as CSS when Tailwind compiles that CSS class.

{% raw %}
.before\:content-\[attr\(data-inset-label\)\]:before{
  --tw-content:attr(data-inset-label);
  content:var(--tw-content)
}
{% endraw %}

You could complain that that is one hell of a bloated CSS class name, but again, I don't think this is a colossal deal.

If you want to see an example of this in production grade code, check out a recent PR of mine to the OpenSauced app repository.

Animations​

If you're looking to add animations, Tailwind ships with plenty of useful animations and CSS classes to leverage them.

Need a custom animation? You can do that as well. I won't go into it here, but here's a great post about writing custom animations in Tailwind.

Accessibility​

You've got all these cool animations, but what if someone has specified prefers-reduced-motion? Tailwind can handle that for you as long as you prefix your animation with motion-safe:, e.g.

{% raw %}
<p class="motion-safe:animate-spin">Spinning text</p>
{% endraw %}

There's other useful Tailwind classes for accessibility, like sr-only, which will remain in the page, but only be visible to screen readers.

I think something that would be interesting to add to the Tailwind a11y story is using Tatiana Mac's (@tatianamac) approach of taking a no-motion-first approach to animations.

Define some base styles​

I'm all for components, and I'm a big fan of JSX. Tailwind pairs nicely with components, but I do think that it's still good to have some base styles defined, even if you are using components.

For example, a base font size and colour, focus state styles, headings etc. This is what I ended up doing in the OpenSauced app repository.

Another Complaint: It's like bootstrap​

Tailwind CSS on its own is not like bootstrap. It's just CSS utility classes, whereas bootstrap is UI components and CSS.

I've never used it, but maybe you could fall into this trap with Tailwind UI.

Tradeoffs​

Like many things, there are tradeoffs. I think the biggest one is learning the Tailwind CSS classes and naming conventions for building them, but I think the benefits outweigh this. And to be honest, once you start writing the classes frequently, the naming convention just sticks in your head.

And if you have some super complex CSS, for whatever reason, Tailwind can't handle, there's nothing wrong with adding some custom CSS.

Wrapping Things Up​

I literally only started using Tailwind September 18th of 2023 when I started at OpenSauced.

Tailwind has made me super productive while building out OpenSauced, and I've used it in some other projects since then.

Remember, Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework. It's not inline CSS.

I encourage you to give Tailwind a go. They have outstanding documentation and great IDE support to help you along the way.

If you give it a go and say it's not for me, that's OK. Use what makes you the most productive.

Stay saucy peeps!

If you would like to know more about my work in open source, follow me on OpenSauced.

Today is day 6 of my 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives series, where I'll be exploring open source alternatives to proprietary software in the categories of Game Development and Multimedia, Development Tools and Platforms, Productivity and Collaboration Tools, and more. If you'd like to see the list of the open source alternatives I'll be covering this month, head over to my 29 Days of Open Source Alts Page or check out my bonus lists: open source games and API Development Tools.

A couple of years ago, I was working with a university doctoral student who was recording oral histories. One of the biggest challenges she faced was taking the videos and transcribing them, which was required by the doctoral committee. We came up with a low-code way to solve her problem: the solution was Pipedream.

Today is day 5 of 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives. You can find the list of most of the projects we're going to cover here. This part of the series will cover Development Tools and Platforms

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, allow for communication between different software systems and services, forming the necessary bridge in applicates used daily in industries ranging from banking to entertainment. Because we depend on technology so much, it's important to make sure we're testing to make sure everything works.

Today is day 4 of 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives. You can find the list of most of the projects we're going to cover here. This part of the series will cover Development Tools and Platforms.

We've seen a rise in popularity for Software as a Service (SaaS) tools because of their convenience and flexibility, often handling the management of software distribution, maintenance, and feature development for their users. In fact, you're probably using a SaaS product whether you know it or not. Examples of SaaS dev tools include code editors, project management software, collaboration platforms, and more.

Today is day 3 of 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives, and the final post for the Game Development and Multimedia segment.

I haven't used Audacity myself, but anytime I ask a content creator what tools they use for content creation, Audacity is always mentioned. Because I co-host two podcasts, and I'm very invested in finding more ways to talk about storytelling, Audacity is on the top of my list as a tool to explore ways to share my creative process.

**Today is day 2 of 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives, and in this short week of February, we're covering Game Development and Multimedia. If you'd like to see more open source games, you can check out my OSS Games Page. **

Before coming into tech, I spent a lot more time writing and working creatively, mostly writing screenplay or tv pilot specs. It's always been my dreams to see my stories come alive on screen. You know that crane shot you see in the most epic of all scenes in action movies? That has always been my dream.

Today starts my 29 Days of Open Source Alternatives series, where I'll be exploring open source alternatives to proprietary software in the categories of Game Development and Multimedia, Development Tools and Platforms, Productivity and Collaboration Tools, and more. If you'd like to see the list of the open source alternatives I'll be covering this month, head over to my 29 Days of Open Source Alts Page or check out my list of open source games.

Last year, we decided to homeschool my 13 year old for a semester. When he told me that he was really interested in game development, I installed all things Unity and tried to get him up and running.

Narrator: we never got things up in running.

All the major browsers now support the <dialog%gt; element. Why add this HTML element? User land code, code that developers write to fill in gaps of the browser, was doing similar things repeatedly, especially around focus trapping, and browser engines responded by adding this functionality directly in the browser.

Focus Trapping​

What is focus trapping? It's a feature where you do not want focus outside a specific element, and that element typically contains focusable elements.

For example, a form in a modal to confirm an action: As a user uses the keyboard to navigate, they go to the next focusable element, e.g. a button.

If they reach the last focusable element in the modal, without focus trapping, the focus would go to the next focusable element in the document object model (DOM). With focus trapping, you go from the last focusable back to the first focusable element in the parent element.

In user land, popular packages like focus-trap have enabled developers to incorporate focus trapping.

<dialog> for Modal Dialogs​

With the dialog element, you get this for free, although there is a gotcha. If you add a dialog element to the page with the open attribute set, the dialog element will become visible on the page; however, focus trapping will not work as you'd expect in a modal.

From the API documentation:

Note: While you can toggle between the open and closed states of non-modal dialog boxes by toggling the presence of the open attribute, this approach is not recommended.

To get focus trapping working, the JavaScript API is required. You can display a modal on the screen by calling the HTMLDialogElement showModal method.

Note that you'll need to view this CodePen in full view because, for some reason, modal dialog focus trapping does not work in the CodePen editor view.

Not only do you get focus trapping, you also get modal close functionality that people have come to expect via the Escape key.

All of that is already amazing, but another common thing people were doing in user land was adding a background to block out users from interacting with the page. With the <dialog%gt; element, we can add a ::backdrop pseudo-element that does this for you. All you need to do is style it. In the CodePen above, uncomment out this code in the CSS panel to see this in action.

{% raw %}
dialog::backdrop {
  background-color: purple;
  opacity: 0.55;
  filter: blur(100px);
}
{% endraw %}

<dialog> for Non-Modal Dialogs​

The structure of a non-modal dialog element is the same as a modal dialog. The main difference is to show a non-modal dialog, you need to call the HTMLDialogElement show method.

With a non-modal dialog, the user is not blocked from navigating the rest of the page, i.e. no focus trapping, and the Escape key will not automatically close the dialog.

Closing a dialog​

To close a dialog or modal, we can use the HTMLDialogElement close method.

{% raw %}
const modal = document.querySelector("dialog");

// some button in the dialog that has a click event listener registered
modal.querySelector("button").addEventListener("click", () => {
  modal.close();
});
{% endraw %}

Wrapping up​

The web platform keeps getting better. It's great to see pain points in user land that had user solutions come natively to browser land.

References​

• Using JavaScript to trap focus in an element
• MDN - <dialog>: The Dialog element
• GitHub issue <dialog%gt; element should trap focus from the w3c/html repository.
• Dialog - web.dev

Stay saucy peeps!

If you would like to know more about my work in open source, follow me on OpenSauced.

There's been a lot of talk recently about how to get into open source. I think part of the challenge of breaking into open source is overthinking it.

https://x.com/BekahHW/status/1742920548353745068?s=20

We need to reframe how we think about starting with contributing. Getting started with open source can feel intimidating, but it's just like learning a new game with complex rules. You wouldn't jump straight into a game without reading the instructions. In the same way, you shouldn't overwhelm yourself with open source. Take it step-by-step.