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CSS

Posted by qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

Sass vs LESS poll

Today I noticed that newyorktimes.com uses LESS and that Bootstrap (a huge LESS is popular) came out with an official Sass port. Putting aside the Compass, Bourbon and LESS Hat mixin libraries for the moment, maybe we can take a +1 poll about who uses Sass and who uses LESS?

7 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Like most format wars in tech, it really doesn't matter which is technically superior, mind share (and sometimes market share) is everything. Mind share tends to drive additional development, new tools, better documentation and a larger community ask questions to.

http://css-tricks.com/sass-vs-less/

qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points
qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

James,

Yep CC does a good job on that article with technical comparisons/preferences. Still I think if your technology doesn't hold up (R.I.P .SWF) then it doesn't matter if you have 97% market share. Sass vs LESS mindshare is tricky because it's beyond the technology and seems more the big players using the tech that seems to sway opinion back and forth. For example Google/Paul Irish are pro Sass Source Maps into Chrome Dev Tools. Twitter Bootstrap chooses LESS. Apple uses Sass. NewYorkTimes.com uses LESS. Foundation uses Sass. Treehouse chooses Sass to teach first... Sass as books/conferences LESS doesn't... you get the point.

Maybe it doesn't matter who wins, it's good to have options.

Tony

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

> Still I think if your technology doesn't hold up (R.I.P .SWF) then it doesn't matter if you have 97% market share.

Tech changes. VHS killed betamax for years. I wouldn't say VHS lost out to DVD because it didn't hold up. Time marches on and look at the technology of the past makes fools of us all.

qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points
qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

Yes it certainly does especially on the web. Thats funny you mention tape because they actually don't hold up over time and degrade, though not to the extent Reel-to-reel tapes did - my friend had a digital conversion company.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

CD/DVDs are actually pretty bad about holding up over time.

According to the US National Archives

"CD/DVD experiential life expectancy is 2 to 5 years "

source: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/temp-opmedia-faq.html

qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points
qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

Chris Coyier at css-tricks.com pointed out there is a 2012 CSS Preprocessor Poll which has LESS (23%) beating Sass/scss (18%).

He also sent this link for more recent 2013 Preprocessor Stats on Codepen giving Sass/Compass (80%) a huge win over LESS (20%).

It's not perfect data but it's what seems to be available. Also interesting that only 1 in 5 codepen.io Pens use a preprocessor at all - so plenty of time to Learn Sass.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Preprocessors have some neat tricks but they are far from required.

CSS Preprocessors largely help solve the CSS architecture issues like OOCSS and BEM. Most of the stuff on codepen is just an experiment the usefulness of a preprocessor in that case is much less.

qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points
qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

James,

Which are your favorite "neat tricks" when using css preprocessors? Do you prefer using Sass, LESS? I have never used Stylus but I hear good things. I would prefer to keep the discuss about Sass vs LESS. Maybe you can do another discussion involving OOCSS/BEM/SMACSS.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Sass has 3 main ones:

  • compile/minify multiple CSS files together
  • use variables which you can do math on for colors, font size and other sizes
  • use mixins for vendor prefixes especially animations & transforms

I've only done the Sass course here at Treehouse, however I think LESS supports all of these

qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points
qdzfplofsk
qdzfplofsk
22,025 Points

I think it was fantastic for Treehouse to get Hampton Catlin himself to do the Sass video (such a funny/cooky guy). It seems like Team-Sass are moving Sass toward targeting developers building frameworks, which is probably why it beats LESS at more complicated features. To each his own.