156: The State of CSS Is In

The podcast opens with a discussion about the latest State of CSS survey in 2026, highlighting key trends such as the popularity of anchor positioning despite its limited browser support and the ongoing dominance of Tailwind CSS. The survey also revealed insights into the use of AI in CSS generation, with about a third or more of CSS still being handcrafted by developers due to current AI limitations. Features like CSS nesting and aspect ratio have gained popularity, and new CSS capabilities like gap decorations are being explored. Demographics indicate an older, more experienced developer base, with less participation from junior developers. The discussion underscores the rapid evolution and improvements in CSS, browser interoperability, and the challenges for those keeping up.

CodePen has released its major update, CodePen 2.0, introducing significant improvements such as the ability to deploy pens with a click, a file system view, version control, and blocks representing functionalities like TypeScript and Sass. The hosts reflect on their infrequent use of CodePen recently and critique the timing and lack of AI integration in this new release. They acknowledge CodePen’s ongoing value for quick prototyping and learning but note how AI tools like Claude and other design AI solutions are beginning to overshadow traditional online editors by offering faster, integrated, and AI-supported workflows.

A new front-end framework called Octane is discussed, which offers React compatibility with simplified development without dependency arrays and enhanced performance comparable to Solid.js. The hosts highlight its real potential in an LLM-driven development world due to its performance benefits and React-like familiarity. Additionally, TanStack has undergone a rebrand and announced a new data visualization library built on top of D3, aimed at providing better tools for complex data visualization tasks and improved search capabilities for their ecosystem.

GitHub has introduced the concept of stacked pull requests, visually represented by a pancake emoji, designed to break down large, monolithic PRs into smaller, reviewable layers—such as database changes, APIs, front-end, and testing. This feature helps manage complex projects by simplifying review processes, minimizing merge conflicts, and allowing staged implementation of features. The discussion emphasizes how stacking PRs can streamline workflows especially when working with AI-generated or long-running feature branches.

Anthropic has released Claude Opus 5, which is positioned as a more cost-effective successor to Opus 4.8 with better performance on coding tasks. The hosts note their early positive experiences with the new model and remark on how it signifies ongoing improvements in AI language models, which are increasingly integrated into coding and development workflows, including through tools like Claude.

The episode concludes with personal recommendations and updates, such as Paige’s recommendation of the miniseries 'His and Hers' on Netflix featuring actors like John Bernthal and Tessa Thompson, and TJ's mention of the Orbit Traveling Tractor Water Sprinkler, a novel, water-powered garden irrigation device. The hosts share their enjoyment of these topics and invite listeners to join the community on Discord and follow on social media.