Adam Wathan, Creator of TailwindCSS

Ben and Adam Wathan cover the development and reimagining of Tailwind CSS, focusing on the release of Tailwind 4.0. They delve into the motivation behind the rewrite, the challenges faced, and the approach to maintaining backward compatibility. The conversation covers topics related to software versioning, open-source maintenance, backward compatibility, the use of Rust in Tailwind, testing strategies, and the future of Tailwind as a business. Links () - The best app for pair programming Tailwind CSS () - The CSS framework Adam created Key Takeaways * Rewrites can lead to a cleaner, more maintainable codebase. * Accurate problem modeling can lead to the emergence of new features and benefits. * The approach to backward compatibility involves making it easy to upgrade to the new version rather than simply making the old version work. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction and Background 00:00:35 Windows Version Launch and Guest Network 00:01:24 Rewriting Tailwind: Philosophy and Execution 00:03:42 Ben’s Static HTML Website Idea 00:09:06 Re-imagining Tailwind with Tailwind 4 00:20:49 Challenges and Solutions in Tailwind Development 00:32:45 Rust Components in Tailwind 4 00:35:41 Tailwind 4 Goals and Achievements 00:40:22 Testing and Quality Assurance in Tailwind 4 00:46:38 Tailwind 4 Release 00:49:54 The Tailwind Origin Story 00:52:24 Business Strategies and Open Source Impact