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  • #169124
    nixnerd
    Participant

    So… I’m on Reddit today talking about Sass. Everybody loves it… no surprise there. Although a lot of people are all about Stylus, which I think looks chaotic syntactically. But, node is the hottest hotness ever right now. Moving on…

    The biggest gripe people have is twofold:

    A. It uses Ruby.
    B. It compiles very slow.

    I don’t understand either of these issues because to me… they’re non-issues. First of all, you don’t even really need to use or write anything in Ruby to use Sass. Unless you want to tweak your config, you never even touch Ruby. So it’s not your favorite language… great. Who cares? You won’t be using it. You just use Gems to install and that’s it.

    Secondly, everyone who complains, complains about compile times. They’re like “Oh holy **** that Ruby is just so damn slow when it comes to compiling!” Uhhh… not for me. I’ve never once seen any delay at all in compiling my stuff to vanilla CSS. Is this a common thing? Because… I kind of think it’s not a thing.

    I do have one theory… which is the fact that I actually write in SCSS… not traditional Sass. Since that is so much like regular CSS syntactically… maybe the compile times are shorter? Maybe these people just need faster CPUs? What am I missing?

    #169128
    __
    Participant

    Dunno.

    Agreed on both points, though: Ruby—who cares? I don’t like ruby, but that’s like complaining about using PHP because it’s written in C. I haven’t noticed slow compile times either (and I do use the sass syntax).

    #169149
    nixnerd
    Participant

    I haven’t noticed slow compile times either (and I do use the sass syntax).

    I will literally never understand some people. Oh well.

    Have you checked out Stylus? The lack of any brackets or punctuations looks like complete anarchy to my brain. But… to each his own.

    #169151
    __
    Participant

    Have you checked out Stylus?

    I have not. Looks nice enough. I haven’t read through the docs, but two off-the-cuff objections:

    • The arguments keyword for functions is a terrible idea, in terms of robustness and troubleshooting. something like args[name] or args[n] would be far better. (It looks like they might allow for named args, which would be cool, but -like I said- haven’t really read it yet.) In this same vein, variables/functions/mixins/whatever should have something that distinguishes them from literal values.
    • Look at JavaScript’s “bad parts.” Look at PHP. “everything optional” is a recipe for disaster. SASS allows users to choose the syntax they like while still promoting consistent, easy-to-proofread code. Stylus looks like it is being marketed to lazy (butNotInTheGoodWay) people who want fragile, messy code.

    The lack of any brackets or punctuations looks like complete anarchy to my brain.

    There is blocking and punctuation; it’s simply composed of whitespace. (The authors clearly don’t understand the meaning of “pythonic,” though!) A blank line starts a new block scope. Keys and values are separated by a nonbreaking space. This part doesn’t bother me as much, but, combined with the “everything optional” philosophy, you’re headed for trouble. (Optional parens around args on function calls?? idiocy!)

    In any case, SASS is much more my cup of tea.

    I will literally never understand some people

    Talkin’ bout me or them? : )

    edit:

    Alright, got as far as the second rule on the first pages of the docs before finding a perfect example (delimiting selectors with commas is optional unless the selectors “look like properties.” Sound familiar (javascript’s semicolon insertion, anyone)? Meaning, this feature is optionally broken).

    To be blunt, so far, everything that looks nice about this language is lifted from SASS anyway.

    edit #2:

    Yeah… keep reading… “root reference” (the “BTW block scope is optional” operator) and “disambiguation” (the “our function syntax is broken” rules) look like barrels of fun.

    #169165
    nixnerd
    Participant

    look like barrels of fun.

    Yup. Not for me. I’ll stick with SCSS.

    #180350
    vohof
    Participant

    Maybe because you’re just having 3 lines of CSS? Try importing bootstrap. Whenever I make a change SASS compiles for like 5 seconds :(

    #180353
    nixnerd
    Participant

    Whelp… now I know what people are complaining about.

    Maybe because you’re just having 3 lines of CSS?

    I try to keep things light :)

    #180375
    Alen
    Participant

    Compiling bootstrap on every save is crazy talk. Why don’t you make it compile to separate file and compile your ‘changes’ file into single file and include it within your html. Once you’re ready for production you compile it all together.

    You don’t need production ready code during development.

    #180376
    nixnerd
    Participant

    @alenabdula… not that I disagree with your answer (I don’t). But how did you get your answer featured? Is the OP the only one who can feature/bury?

    #180379
    __
    Participant

    Is the OP the only one who can feature/bury?

    As far as I knew. You didn’t do it, Joe?

    #180381
    Paulie_D
    Member

    Us Mods can do it too!

    …and that one was me. :)

    #180383
    __
    Participant

    I have said too much

    #180393
    nixnerd
    Participant

    Paulie… Your powers amaze me.

    #180400
    vohof
    Participant

    Why don’t you make it compile to separate file and compile your ‘changes’ file into single file and include it within your html. Once you’re ready for production you compile it all together.

    Oh my gawd. You have enlightened me. I have not thought of that before. Thank you. May the old Gods and the new bless you. Thank you again!!

    #180401
    Alen
    Participant

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