There's an old phrase that the bad workman blames his tools and it seen to apply here too. It's really not difficult and why complain about it being obtuse? If you understand the fundamentals then it makes sense. As for the last sentence well the list he provided is only for people that need to look it up (like you) - that's like me saying to my car mechanic that I should have to look up where the fuses are in the car. If you don't know something you have to look it up (taking what? .4 seconds on google?) - if you knew it you'd obviously not have to look it up. Stop whining and learn this stuff.
I'm glad you get to work in UI-world all day long that CSS' idiosyncrasies are something you can memorize inside and out. Personally, I'm required to know a lot more about mathematics and databases. My clients can deal with not-very-pretty UI, they can't deal with lost or incorrect data.
But if you want to make analogies about tools, one should always use the right tool for the job and not employ hacks. To me, "margin:auto" is a hack. It doesn't express that the object in question is being put in the middle of something else. It hides the intent of the action behind insider jargon. Or, to continue your analogy, it's using the handle of a screw driver to hammer in a nail.
>There's an old phrase that the bad workman blames his tools and it seen to apply here too.
Not all of us are "workmen" here, that have to get used to our tools, etc.
Some of us are actual scientists and engineers, with lots of experience in identifying broken APIs and tools. Some of us even PROGRAM the tools you get to use, from CSS implementations in browsers to editors and such. Heck, there are people on HN from Mozilla, Google, Apple and MS.
CSS, with regards to layout, has been broken from the start.
That's not up for debate just because someone has mastered all the intricasies. Even the original authors and the W3C agree and have taking corrective steps in later CSS versions (still not widely supported).
So "Stop whining and learn this stuff" is not really an answer in a technical debate.
