CODEWITHSUNDEEP
csssasscompass
FieryCod
FieryCod

Reputation: 1710

Compass and Sass are dead?

I am going through the code school course "Sass Foundation". I am on a level where the professor tells about the compass framework. When I installed it I realized that the code which it generates does not include the -ms- and -o-.

That is why I would like to ask professionals for some tips, and information which I cannot find here on Stack and on the Internet.

  1. Is the Compass dead now? If yes what should I use instead of it? (to be sure that it will add -ms-, -o- etc.)

  2. Is the Sass dead now?

  3. I did some research and the people say that I should not use the .sass but .scss, but on the other hand, if I use the .scss I won't be able to use the indented syntax. Should I avoid the indented syntax? If yes please specify why.

Upvotes: 17

Views: 19364

Answers (3)

Nostalg.io
Nostalg.io

Reputation: 3752

Since none of the answers are 100% accurate, I will provide my own answer.

  1. Is Compass dead? Yes, apparently. According to their GitHub page:

Compass is no longer actively maintained.

Compass seems to be dying because it is written in Ruby and there are much faster Sass transpilers written in C/C++, mainly LibSass. (Note: it is now the year 2024, and arm64 CPU's compile Sass with node at incredible speeds. Most projects that still use Sass for styling have moved to node-sass or dart-sass—both of which support Sass and SCSS syntax).

What should you use now? Based on this GitHub issue conversation, I would recommend switching to Bourbon for a base set of utility mixins.

  1. Is Sass dead now? No, absolutely not. Modern Sass transpilers, including LibSass, fully support the Sass specification and work great.

  2. Should you avoid the Sass syntax? No. In my opinion, the Sass syntax is cleaner, easier to read, and is definitely easier to type.

You can mix Sass and SCSS syntax. So you can import Bourbon SCSS syntax into your Sass syntax document and use the mixins without issue.

In conclusion, use the syntax that makes you happier.

Upvotes: 55

sheriffderek
sheriffderek

Reputation: 9043

Compass is not, dead - it did what it did well - but it's now been replaced in most peoples' work flows. People started using CodeKit shortly after that- and now they generally use task runners and build tools like, grunt, gulp, brunch, broccoli etc.

What you want is pre-processing and something that has autoprefixer. This could be any of the things mentioned above and can usually be installed and configured with a collection of npm modules. It all depends on the project you're working on. I'd say that gulp is the most popular right now. (I use Ember, so Ember CLI does that for me)

.sass is just another syntax (the original one, I believe). Most developers use .scss and I'd encourage you to stick with that syntax because it's more like CSS and when sharing projects people will thank you. (although I prefer stylus)

EDIT

Afterthoughts... I'd say that "Sass Foundation" is what is dead. That course is going to cause you more trouble then help you. Just write scss and learn new bits as you need them. It's just CSS with some helpful features like variables and nesting.

Upvotes: 5

Ryan Fitzgerald
Ryan Fitzgerald

Reputation: 423

Assuming I'm understanding what you're asking, yes, I would transition to SCSS instead of using SASS. Why? Generally speaking, SASS combines both Sass and SCSS. Sass itself is an older syntax that primarily deals with indentation (instead of brackets, etc.) and doesn't present any real addition to CSS. On the other hand, SCSS is meant to extend CSS3 by providing additional functionality such as variables, nesting, and others. The other bonus is that technically speaking, every valid CSS3 stylesheet is also a valid SCSS stylesheet.

So to conclude, I would definitely consider making the change to SCSS as you will find this is the standard among a lot of frameworks and tools used in the industry, plus it is a newer syntax in comparison to Sass and provides a good deal more functionality to make your life that much easier as a developer.

If you want to find out more information, just take a look at their website: http://sass-lang.com/

So to answer your questions specifically:

  1. No, it is not dead, it has just been updated to follow industry standards. There are many alternatives available. For example, a popular one is Gulp.
  2. Sass isn't dead either, however most developers have moved to SCSS instead.
  3. I would go with SCSS, due to what I have described above.

Upvotes: 2

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