Re: Proposal to use SASS for writing our CSS

Subject: Re: Proposal to use SASS for writing our CSS

From: John Locke <..hidden..>

Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 18:08:41 -0700

On 06/22/2015 02:10 PM, Erik Huelsmann wrote:

It sounds like you were using Compass for more than just it's 'watch' command for real-time compilation? I'm aware that compass has much more to offer than just real-time compilation. I value your feedback - which I interpret as "go there when you know what you're doing" - but wasn't suggesting we should start using Compass as a CSS library; more as a CSS compiler/developer tool. I'm not aware in what extent Compass and Dojo's Claro theme conflict, so without experimenting, I don't know anything about the validity of such a step.

I doubt there's much of a conflict here. We may end up with the dojo-built CSS, + our compass-built CSS, but if we just define which order we load, shouldn't be any conflicts to speak of...

My best recommendation is to use RVM to manage ruby environments, and
Bundler to install the necessary gems into the environment. Otherwise we
get on a conveyor belt of a constantly moving Ruby Gem version target,
and far too much upkeep...

Well, since we have more than enough to do as it is - and taking into account that I'm happy with the Claro theme - I'm now reading "don't go there" into your words here. So, for now, let's not go there.

I do have this dialed in pretty well here. I think the main thing is, when you're dealing with Compass, you're getting into Ruby, at least at a config management level. For that reason, I suggest that we commit the generated CSS files, and then perhaps provide guidance on environment setup for those who wish to do CSS changes.

For those who don't want to delve into Sass, we can just provide a blank CSS file loaded after the sass-generated one, where people can make local changes that override everything we provide.

The Gem conflicts I've seen arise largely from gems that depend upon particular versions of Ruby -- which if you don't install, you need an older version -- which then conflicts with a different Gem, and so on... The "toolkit" gem in particular provides some handy things like an @clearfix mixin, stuff like that that help you lay things out quickly. SingularityGS is a grid system that makes it really easy to create custom grids.

I don't know whether using these helps or hurts our overall work here -- I'm not a Sass or Ruby expert by any means, but I do all the environment setups here for other developers, and this area has been a particular pain. Once I got it all working, it's really, really nice to use, so I'm all on board with using Sass, it's a really large improvement. And I could certainly do the initial setup for the project, like I did with Dojo... but I will need to provide those environment guidelines to get you up and developing with it, if we do start including other gems...

Cheers,
John
http://www.freelock.com

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