Tag Archives: Sass

CSS

CSS Architecture

I’m attempting to compile a comprehensive list of how developers and front-end engineers structure their CSS using the SMACSS (Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS) approach.

What is SMACSS?

“SMACSS stands for Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS, and is more a style guide than a CSS framework. On a high level SMACSS aims at changing the way we are turning designs into code. Instead of working in a page mentality where you try to turn a single page design into code, SMACSS aims to identify repeating visual patterns. Those patterns are then supposed to be coded into flexible/re-usable modules, wich should be independent as possible from the individual page context. This is not a revolutionary point-of-view for a programmer, but in the web design world this is indeed a newer way of thinking.”

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CSS, Framework

Using Bourbon, Neat, Bitters & Refills

So why am I contemplating using Thoughtbot products when Bootstrap is so popular and much widely used in the web community?

  • Bourbon – “A simple and lightweight mixin library for Sass.”
  • Neat – “A lightweight semantic grid framework for Sass and Bourbon.”
  • Bitters – “Scaffold styles, variables and structure for Bourbon projects.”
  • Refills – “…prepackaged patterns and components, built on top of Bourbon, Bitters, and Neat.”

The idea of using clean and semantic markup that is based entirely on Sass mixins was pretty much the key factor which attracted me to try out Bourbon, Neat, Bitters and Refills.

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CSS, Sass

Start using Sass

I really wanted to point out the reasons why web developers should start using Sass and I came across the Clean out your Sass junk drawer slides by Dale Sande. It shows just how much the thought process of well structured CSS has changed over the years. So if you still work with fellow front-end web developer/engineers who aren’t using any CSS Preprocessor, point them to these slides.

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CSS, Preprocessor, Sass

Features of Compass

“Compass is an open-source CSS Authoring Framework.” – Compass

“Compass can do some really handy tasks like measuring images from the filesystem and writing them into your stylesheets. Asset URL functions are available that make it easy to move assets around in a project or even switch to a content delivery network (CDN) without having to rewrite your stylesheets. Compass can even combine a directory of images into a single sprite image and do the otherwise tedious task of calculating coordinates and writing the spriting CSS for you.” – Sass and Compass in Action (Manning)

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CSS, Sass

Learning Sass

What is Sass?

“Sass is a meta-language on top of CSS that’s used to describe the style of a document cleanly and structurally, with more power than flat CSS allows. Sass both provides a simpler, more elegant syntax for CSS and implements various features that are useful for creating manageable stylesheets.” – Sass

To install Sass, read the official Sass guide or if you’re trying to install Sass at your workplace and have issues due to your network firewall, read my previous blog post.

There are numerous ways to compile Sass. There’s the Command Line/Terminal or GUI’s such as Koala, Scout, Prepos and Codekit. Read the official Sass guide on the best way to compile your Sass to CSS.

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