Bootstrap > Shoelace

I had a good look at Shoelace and, comparing it to Bootstrap, came to the following conclusions

Pros:

• small sized CSS
• one small JS file

Cons:

• no grid
• no JS components like
  • carousel
  • navbar
  • collapse
  • modal

Conclusion:

As the opening statement say, it is not a full framework, merely a library of commonly used CSS based components. I wasn't sure whether to put CSS variables under Pros or Cons mainly because IE and, more importantly, Edge do not fully support it. The product is not good enough to use in any workflow whether it be self-coders or as an alternative to Bootstrap.

The following image shows the result in Firefox and Chrome

And this image shows Edge

Final Thought:

It is great to see that there are a number of enthusiasts willing to devote their time to streamlining web development.

It looks nice. The class names are much better than bootstrap's naming convention, they make much more sense to me. I think they rely too much on CSS Variables though. I can't wait to start using them regularly, but too many of my viewer's browsers aren't ready for them.

I still have, in general, over a quarter of all web traffic coming in from browsers that can't see CSS Variables.

I hate coding specifically for IE. So the work-around of providing duplicate css property/value pairs for anything that uses a variable is a no go for me. The entire reason for variables is destroyed when I have to edit at least two locations to change one setting. Since I have to provide the straight css for IE, that all the other browsers will read, there's no reason for me to work with variables just yet, in live sites anyway.

Using CSS Variables is dead simple though, so it's no great effort to just switch over when it works for a wider audience. IE can't possibly hold on all that much longer, especially with Windows 7 set to die in January 2020, so that 25% number should be dropping soon enough.

No, No, and No - that's what I think anyway, no surprise there then.

How many more class names can one 'remember' without having to keep refering to the user manual or tracking them down using the browser inspector to see what attributes to alter. How many more of these backward thinking 'add ons' where you will need to reverse engineer 90% of the css styling are going to keep flooding the market?

Personally I thnk this is a madness workflow - it's like someone who knows their way to a destination and can get their fast and efficiently without the need to keep stopping and refering to the 'map' and someone who has to keep stopping/starting and asking the 'way' because they don't know their way to the destination.

Unfortunately I think that is what web developing is fast becoming these days, those that can use their own skills and those that rely, not on their development skills, but on being able to read a 'map' provided to them. Not really my idea of being a web-developer.