These tools can also help you with auto-prefixing, generating source maps, and minification – valuable assets in any web developer’s toolbox. You could consider an app like Koala – and check out the LESS or SASS documentation for other suggestions.CodeKit is for Mac only, so if you’re needing something for other operating systems, it’s a no-go.Use a command line utility, a build tool like Webpack or Laravel Mix, or get yourself an app to help manage your projects and configurations.There are also additional tools involved: There are different CSS preprocessors available, so which one should you pick? The first thing to know before making a decision is all of these allow you to create and reuse variables, write callable functions, as well as nest your CSS. The ease of use of CodeKit, makes it fast and easy to get SCSS code up and running for easy compilation, auto-prefixing, and minification. While you do need a compilation tool, SCSS saves time, so it’s worth the compilation tool. NOTE: If your IDE has code formatting, your code can easily be formatted to create much more readable source code that can help you visually see the hierarchy, yet when processed will result in the same flat-level CSS code. In vanilla CSS, if you need to access an H1 element within a wrapper within a section, your CSS needs to be: One of the best time-saving features of these languages is the nesting of rules. Anytime you need to use them in your code, just call the function (which can even accept input variables) and have the function’s CSS contents inserted at processing time. If you have specific rule sets that you often refer to, you could encapsulate these in a function. CSS preprocessors and functionsįunctions can also be written, and are a bit like variables, but on steroids. You can even use variables for things like specifying font family stacks, and also standardizing padding or margin values or responsive breakpoints to help create consistent changes to your interface. If you find that one shade needs changing, you can then change a single variable value, re-process your code, and every reference to that shade of blue is updated and your finished CSS file is ready to go. You can create these as variables in your source, and reference the variable, not the hex RGB code. When your design is ready to be built, you’ll know what colors you need – such as a few shades of blue. One of the best features of using a CSS preprocessor is the introduction of variables. The preprocessor then compiles the finished script into CSS that the browser can understand and apply to the HTML.You extend that CSS, and introduce syntax changes to make the CSS easier to write or read.They are a form of scripting language that works to extend the CSS configured for a given website. LESS, SASS, and SCSS are examples of CSS preprocessors. Separating out the CSS into a file, as opposed to using attributes to style the HTML tags, saves time, because the CSS can target the same kind of element again and again without the designer having to repeat the style settings. This file contains the instructions for the web browser on how to style and present your content – from colors and sizes through to layout and even mobile responsiveness. Whether you like writing vanilla CSS in a text editor, or using a preprocessor or framework to help you, the end result will be a CSS file. But along with everything else, having that responsibility is too big a weight to bear, especially when there are tools that can help, such as CSS preprocessors. While cross-browser support is getting better (and thankfully those IE6 days are long gone), at times vendor prefixing is still needed. The big compromise with vanilla CSS, though, is that you need to be responsible for every single line of code – including every vendor prefix for specific definitions – for optimal browser support. You can quickly change a file, refresh your browser, and see the changes – even on your production server. The biggest advantage of writing vanilla CSS is that no additional software is needed. Vanilla CSS is a term that describes essential CSS, without any added CSS preprocessors (more on these later) or development kits added. This post explores these CSS preprocessors and frameworks with some examples, and talks about how this can streamline your CSS development. Yet the bottom line remains, that with every new tool it’s still just a plain vanilla CSS file. Most journeys in web design start with writing vanilla CSS, then you move on to LESS, then SCSS, then Bulma, and right now, Tailwind CSS – and every shift delivers greater efficiency. Awesome! But as your content base grows in size, your approach to CSS may need to evolve to handle the strain. If the style needs to change, switch out the options in the CSS file, and all of the headings update. Mainly because all the layout and styling is controlled by a single file.
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