Live with Adam Wathan at Rails World 2023

In this episode, Jason, Chris, and Andrew are live at Rails World 2023 in Amsterdam, where they are joined by Adam Wathan, creator of Tailwind CSS. Today, they discuss the well-organized event, their excitement about being part of the Rails community, and Adam’s talk on making the most of Tailwind CSS for Rails developers. The conversation dives into topics like using Inertia with Rails, the challenges of creating accessible components, and the management of open source projects, all while shedding light on the nuances of web development. They also explore the pros and cons of using React and Vue.js in their projects, highlighting the flexibility and evolution of these frontend technologies.  Press download now to hear much more! 

[00:01:01] Adam talks about being at his first-ever Rails conference he’s attending.

[00:02:00] Adam discusses “Tailwind Connect,” an event that started as a team retreat and grew into a successful meetup. 

[00:04:38] Jason asks about Adam’s upcoming talk at the conference. He discusses the content of his talk, focusing on helping Rails developers make the most of TailwindCSS.

[00:06:19] Jason inquires about using Laravel with Inertia, and Adam explains the benefits of Inertia, including how it preserves the monolithic feel of Rails while using React or Vue for the view layer. 

[00:10:46] Chris and Adam discuss the history and challenges of using Inertia in Rails and its potential advantages. They talk about the limitations of web components and styling issues when using Tailwind CSS.

[00:13:50] Adam discusses the need for unstyled primitives with Stimulus or similar solutions to support keyboard navigation and accessibility, and the complexities of handling various scenarios and the need for continuous maintenance.

[00:16:07] Chris appreciates the high quality of Tailwind CSS, and they discuss the challenge of managing criticism and maintaining high standards for open source projects. 

[00:19:02] Adam shares the company’s high standards for quality and handling GitHub issues, the ideal number of GitHub issues, and the importance of triaging effectively.  

[00:21:15] We hear how issues are categorized, including bug reports and feature requests.  Chris and Adam discuss how to handle feature requests in GitHub repositories. The conversation shifts to the challenges of managing open source project, including handling issues and feature requests.

 

[00:27:29] The discussion turns to implementing interactive frontend components without React, focusing on accessibility and keyboard navigation, and Adam brings up the “curse of React.” Then, Adam discusses the challenges of building frontend components in the context of a Rails project. 

[00:33:32] The conversation shifts to a comparison of React and Vue.js and why Adam leans towards using React in recent projects. Adam explains that his shift towards react began when they needed interactive components for Tailwind UI and React was chosen due to better support and expertise in the team. 

[00:35:35] Adam discusses the benefits of creating smaller components in React compared to Vue due to lower extraction costs. He also touches on the evolution of the React and Vue ecosystems, where it appears that Vue often follows in Reacts footsteps. 

[00:39:42] How much Laravel does Adam get to do these days? Adam mentions that while he doesn’t work with Laravel much these days, it is still the main technology for their primary web app.  

[00:41:38] Adam expresses his excitement about being a part of the Rails community, despite having written his first line of Rails code only recently. He appreciates the influence Rails has had on him and mentions how Rails played a crucial role in his journey of learning Test-Driven Development (TDD).

[00:43:18] Andrew asks if there’s any CSS changes coming up? Adam explains an optimization using a new CSS feature called “at property” that will improve performance by reducing the number of CSS variable generated. Also, there’s a brief mention of Tailwind uncovering browser bugs and having contacts on Firefox and Chrome teams to get them fixed.

[00:49:03] The conversation briefly touches on the CSS Working Group and its influence, and Adam discusses some upcoming CSS features like CSS nesting that might simplify Tailwind’s implementation.  Adam explains how Tailwind is re-implementing features using nested rules in CSS for simplicity and browser performance. 

[00:51:24] The episode concludes with Jason expressing his appreciation for Tailwind’s incremental improvements, such as arbitrary values and data attributes, which have added value to web development. 

Panelists:

Jason Charnes

Chris Oliver

Andrew Mason

Guest:

Adam Wathan

Sponsors:

Buzzsprout

Honeybadger

Links:

Jason Charnes Twitter

Chris Oliver Twitter

Andrew Mason Twitter

Ruby for All Podcast

Adam Wathan Website

Adam Wathan Twitter

Tailwind CSS

Inertia.js

Laravel

Vue.js

React

Tailwind Connect 2023: Recap of our first in-person event by Adam Wathan