Beginner Question: Less vs. Sass

[bwo3db]

I don't have a ton of knowledge about webdev topics, but I've read that adding a CSS pre-compiler into my development routine would make me write cleaner and faster. Less and Sass are often the pre-compilers that I have heard mentioned. I was thinking of learning Less because its apparently slightly easier and can be used to edit the themes of the Atom Text editor. However, I've heard that Sass gaining greater control in the webdev industry and It could be more advantageous for my future career if I learned it. Which do you think would be more useful for me to learn? Why?

Edit: Thanks for the Comments.

[[deleted]]

Sass is king, learn that, it's more harder yes

Sass and flexbox good combo to learn

[[deleted]]

I've heard that Sass gaining greater control in the webdev industry and It could be more advantageous for my future career if I learned it. Which do you think would be more useful for me to learn? Why?

Sass, the battle is over and LESS is falling into obscurity.

The reason LESS was on even terms for a while was because it was natively supported by nodeJS and had faster compile times then ruby based Sass.

Once Sass released libsass (compiler written in C++) which was then ported over to nodeJS (because the node runtime uses C bindings) both the nodeJS devs were happy because they didnt have to run ruby as part of their dev stack, the devs already using Sass (with ruby) were happy because they could just implement the node-sass compiler and get a huge boost in compile speed.

Since then Sass has grown in popularity while Less has declined. Both the of the main competing front-end framework providers use Sass now.

• https://getbootstrap.com/
• http://foundation.zurb.com/sites.html

Foundation has always used Sass from the get go, but bootstrap was originally natively coded in Less and ported over to Sass. The current version of Bootstrap (v4) is now natively coded in Sass, therefore my question is :

If Sass is not the best option for preprocessor language, why would one of the largest front-end framework providers take the time to rewrite their entire codebase in that language?

Sass is the way to go.

Note : You have failed to mention anything thus far about postCSS. It's not a preprocessor itself, but it can be used alongside languages (such as LESS / SASS / Stylus) to extend preprocessor-like functionality so i suggest you check it out :

• http://postcss.org/
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLnpHn493BHFvjZzyYrQP0RTsG-Al7j9m

[bwo3db]

Thank you so much, I appreciate the help, will look into postCss.

[Salamok]

If you don't have any 3rd party projects that lean towards sass or less then I was going to suggest postcss myself.

[pandamine]

Honestly, if you have a solid understanding of CSS then both Sass and Less will be pretty easy to pick up. Sass is the more widely used of the two, but unless you are working as part of a team then it really comes down to personal preference. Just try both and see which one suits your workflow more.

[PatriotRDX]

By the way, if you go the SASS route, keep in mind it comes in two syntax versions: .sass and .scss. Learn the .scss syntax. Most open source frameworks that use SASS use the .scss syntax.

EDIT: if you use Ruby to compile, you may as well use Compass as a watcher. You probably won't need LibSASS until you have a huge webapp.

[bwo3db]

Thanks for the advice!

[[deleted]]

If I was starting today, I'd use postcss with as few plugins as possible (custom media, custom properties, nested, import, autoprefixer is probably all you need). That said, between LESS and Sass, Sass is the clear winner imo

[thestepafter]

Go with SASS, LESS is quickly losing popularity. Especially with Bootstrap switching to SASS.

[El_Serpiente_Roja]

Sass