![]() Let’s say a click triggers open a dialog box and you’re trying to style that dialog box. This is particularly useful where you are styling something on a page in a particular state. If what you changed was just CSS, it injects the styles into the page without a page refresh. For HTML: HAML, Jade, Slim, or Eco.Īfter it’s preprocessed, it reloads the page in whatever browser(s) you have the browser extensions installed in. For JavaScript: CoffeeScript or IcedCoffeeScript. For CSS: LESS, SASS (w/ Compass), or Stylus. It can do a whole bunch of preprocessors. When any file in that folder changes, it triggers preprocessing. You tell LiveReload to watch a particular folder. LiveReload: the menu bar icon, the app window, and a browser with the browser extension installed. ![]() It is a menu bar app where clicking the icon in the menu bar opens a window of options. ![]() It now available on the App Store for $9.99. The app that got me started on all this preprocessor goodness was LiveReload ( screencast). I’m sure there are pretty good ones for other platforms. You gotta really try it to see how it might work with your day to day. If you get some time to try it out, do it. My advice is: don’t let people get on your case. And the projects I work on are in better, more maintainable shape because of it. I can tell you that after making the jump, I am actually more productive. If you’re perfectly happy doing what you are doing: godspeed. ![]() The real answer is that nothing needs to change if you don’t want it to. It’s hard to say anything at all about preprocessors, let alone something vaguely negative, without getting pounced on.įor a long time I thought: I write CSS everyday. Man, usually you even breathe about preprocessors and CSS and the LESS/SASS folks dogpile you at greyhound speed. Other turnoffsĪs childish as this may seem, another reason it took me so long to get on the preprocessor bandwagon was the crowd. Here’s the thing: I’m right there with you. That’s a very common thing to hear regarding SASS. I’m a designer! I don’t know how to use the command line nor should I need to. I use a couple fantastic apps that I’ll cover later. Now that I’m working primarily on projects that run on my local machine, using preprocessors is easy. If you are using something like Ruby or Python, well, chances are you know how to set up that stuff anyway so you’re fine. Of course there are variants of MAMP for all platforms. WordPress, Joomla, PHP, Vanilla, CodeIgnitor, CakePHP, and a million more) then using MAMP ( my screencast) is ideal. Work from a folder somewhere on your machine. If you work only on static sites, you can just start doing it. Namely, 1) It’s fast 2) You can edit stuff to your heart’s content without worry you’re screwing up a live site and 3) It allows you to effectively work on a team through version control (more on that later). Working local is full of obvious advantages. It makes it way too easy to work live instead of local 1. Yeah, Coda is awesome, but it’s bad habit forming. The biggest contributor to me getting on the bandwagon was giving up my going-commando live FTP editing ways. From apps and teams to workflows and syntax. From hold-ups, to trip-ups, to turn-offs. I’ve been using Sass for pretty much everything I do recently.
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