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Sass isn’t for me

Nathan Borror on Sass, the CSS preprocessor. CSS is not a programming language, it’s a style language and the preprocessor community should keep that in mind..

Best comment comes from Jeff Croft: CSS gurus are just that: CSS gurus. They already know how to write their way out of any paper bag you can find using CSS. They’re experts. They don’t NEED a preprocessor.

Leave your comment

Elliott Pogue

December 8 2009 @ 06:46am #

The purpose of a preprocessor is just to make things easier. I know plenty about CSS, but I use Sass because it’s handy.

Charles Roper

December 8 2009 @ 11:49pm #

That article has echos of the past.

“HTML gurus are just that: HTML gurus. They already know how to write their way out of any paper bag you can find using table-based HTML. They’re experts. They don’t NEED CSS-based layouts.”

Similar arguments by experts were fielded during the transition to tableless layouts. You could also argue that there is no need for the likes of content management systems, PHP, Rails or Django because HTML/CSS experts can HTML and CSS their way out of any situation. The same arguments were put forward for Javascript frameworks too.

The point with CSS preprocessors is that they provide a few more tools to make your life as a web designer better. CSS *is* a programming language, of sorts. It’s closer to programming than it is to visual design. Don’t be afraid of change. Embrace new tools. Experiment. Re-evaluate. If you don’t, you won’t remain an expert for long.

brad

December 13 2009 @ 05:48am #

@ Charles

I think the only analogy you used that really applies is the Javascript frameworks analogy.

The transition away from table-less layouts, was mainly about semantics and the fact the table based layouts semantically communicated the wrong message. Not because it may be easier to write table-less markup, that’s just an added benefit.

Similarly the need for a CMS is mainly that of helping clients, who know nothing of our world, to manage a website and it’s content. Not necessarily to make it easier on us, that’s just an added benefit.

Javascript can be a daunting language to comprehend, especially to the uninitiated, a framework can make Javascript much more manageable. Personally I don’t find the syntax of CSS to be that confusing or difficult to learn that I need to obfuscate it by adding a whole other layer onto it.

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