Forum for discussing general topics related to Couch.
8 posts Page 1 of 1
hello Couch ... I'm investigating the options for starting to use a CSS pre-processor and am finding quite a lot options around out there. I'm mainly focused on SASS (but put off by what seems a huge number of dependencies and can anticipate problems!) and the Prepros App.

If anyone has any insights or advice to offer that would be great!
I personally use Less; Sass is obviously just as capable though...

I also configure a task runner like Grunt (or gulp.js) to automate CSS and JS concatenation and minification. Both of these run on node.js (JavaScript). Once this is setup, you can just open a CLI (command prompt or terminal) and type "grunt" and it will run all of the necessary tasks. You can also configure a file watcher to run while you are developing locally and do things automatically as changes are made to source files.

Brackets may interest you.
There is a really huge amount of bonuses when use preprocessors, I recommend LESS. The best tool for automatic compiliation of JS, LESS, SASS, CS etc. with minification is freeware Koala (http://koala-app.com/), just drag the folder and you'll get all the chosen files compiled on files' change.
If use Firefox, suggest Auto Reload plugin that will reload page on CSS compiliation complete.
I've chosen this machanism after testing a lot of other instruments, but only this makes things prompt and invisibly fast - save your LESS (I use Notepad++) and the changes are immediately appearing in Firefox.

LESS is more simple and useful in my opinion than SASS, it contains all the neccessary options constructed in a strong logical way. Some years ago it was not so good, but since 1.7 release I prefer this preproc only.
Suggest also learning LessHat library that will save you a lot of time.
thanks cheesypoof and musman - it's helpful to get some first hand opinions from others working with Couch. I was attracted by LESS but also put off because Bootstrap and Foundation seem geared to SASS. Anyway it's a whole new raft of downloads, jargon and learning to get my head round!
@cheesypoof - thanks for the Brackets recommendation. I'm setting up on a new computer which is a chance to re-evaluate and upgrade/change all the programs I use. I tried notepad++ and sublime text and am now trialling Brackets. For me Brackets stands out as the clear winner and I've only scratched the surface.
I am glad you like Brackets @potato. It really is a very extensible editor, as can be seen by the number of community extensions. You may even find a couple themes made by me if you search for my username. ;)
Never thought I'd get excited about a text editor! I've installed a few extensions (Emmet, tabs, css color preview, file icons, right click extended) - and am now using Quick Light theme by our very own @cheesypoof!
Finally I've moved to Brackets too) Since 1.0 version it covers all my needs - auto LESS compiliation, quick search, Emmet... Some features are still desirable (like pipette in color picker, better ssh and ftp manager, working with other encodings, easy syntax highliting creation etc), but the stability and usability are better than in Notepad++ and other editors.
So, can recommend it now)
8 posts Page 1 of 1
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