Justice for CSS

The article argues that CSS is an undervalued and complex language that suffers from unfair gatekeeping by the programming community. It highlights the evolution of CSS and the lack of recognition for its creator, Håkon Wium Lie.
Why it matters
Recognizing the technical depth of CSS challenges elitist perceptions within the software development industry.
One paragraph in, a certain reader will already be smarting at my description of CSS. “It’s a style sheet language,” I can hear them say, “not a programming language.” (The second S indeed stands for “sheets,” and the C, if anyone cares, for “cascading.”) Or, “it’s a domain-specific language, not a general-purpose language.” Also, “it doesn’t execute” and, of course, “it’s not Turing complete” (although … ). Granted, CSS is a little different. There’s no compile step, and it doesn’t throw errors at run time like other languages. But that’s all beside the point.
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