Extension languages are becoming the core part of development process. Extensions are used to counter the limitations present in actual language. For now let us take CSS, where to enhance its modularity and scalability the preprocessors are used extensively.
One of the drawbacks of CSS is the repetitions of media queries, due to which maintenance becomes a behemoth task. Also, style sheets will be more complex and difficult to read due to increase in the volume of code structure. The best way to counter this obstacle is to have extensions, where each of these extensions can be used to represent a particular set of repeated values.
Repetitions in a code are bound to happen, but we have to make sure that performance is not compromised on the whole. Through variables, operators, interpolations, mixins, and functions, the preprocessors extend CSS functionality unconditionally. Sometimes CSS can be considered as void without these preprocessors. The common style sheet languages under CSS are Sass and LESS. By going through each of these languages let us decide a winner.
Sass (Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets) & LESS (Leaner CSS)
Sass and LESS are the most reliable extension languages used for enhancing the functionality of CSS. The main agenda of these preprocessors is to make CSS better. Here Sass is a Ruby based language; whereas LESS is based on JavaScript. Both of these are backward compatible with CSS, which makes the conversion process more resilient. This process involves a very basic procedure, the user have to rename .CSS file extension as .less or .sass.
Installation Procedure
Since Sass is a ruby based language, the presence of latter one is necessary to run the former one. Sudo gem install Sass is the command which is to be used in order to install Sass. If one is going with Mac, or the newer versions of Linux and OSX, then ruby would have come installed on prior. But for Windows it is not the same case, the user have to use the command.
On the other hand, since LESS is a JavaScript based language, NodeJS is necessary to run it. The command npm install -g less is to be used in order to install on Linux or Mac. But in case of Windows, a NodeJS installer should be installed.
Mixin Libraries
If there is a need to include group declarations or properties, then mixins are to be used. To be more discreet, Mixins make use of CSS declarations to avoid repetitions. Bourbon, Compass, Breakpoint Sass, and Scut are some of the mixins that come under Sass, contributing greatly for reducing performance latency. Here Compass has self up gradation feature. On the other hand, even though LESS contains some mixin libraries such as preboot and others, it fails to provide the same grade of support as that of Saas mixins. Also, mixins under LESS needs manual up gradation which is time-consuming.
Variables
Preprocessors are all about variables, any reusable factors can be easily stored for future utilization. Variables in Saas contain a dollar sign at their forepart and the values are assigned through colon sign. Under LESS, variables have @ sign at the forepart, while the value allocation is done through colon symbol. Saas supports four different data types; this allows the developers to essentially support multi-dimensional lists which are possible in complex systems. But the same cannot be expected under LESS.
The main concern for web developers is the scalability, which if not countered precisely results in performance degradation. Even though Saas and LESS have similar features, and follows a common goal which is to make CSS better, developers look for the better one. Compared to LESS, Saas provides greater leverage over the development process.
