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When CSS doesn’t do anything

Blog post from LogRocket

Post Details
Company
Date Published
Author
Patrick Brosset
Word Count
2,511
Language
-
Hacker News Points
-
Summary

CSS, though appearing simple at first glance, becomes complex due to its numerous properties and combinations, often leading to frustration when styling attempts fall short of expectations. Unlike JavaScript, CSS is a declarative language, which means it dictates what should happen rather than how, making its debugging process less intuitive. This complexity is compounded by the lack of traditional debugging tools, as CSS doesn't allow for console messages or debuggers. However, Firefox introduced a feature called Inactive CSS to help developers identify when CSS properties don't affect an element, addressing common issues such as text overflow and element alignment. By highlighting and explaining inactive declarations in the DevTools interface, this feature aims to assist developers in understanding why some CSS properties don't produce the desired visual effect, ultimately improving the developer experience.