csssasscompass

Compass and Sass are dead?


I am going through the code school course "Sass Foundation". I am on a level where the professor tells about the compass framework. When I installed it I realized that the code which it generates does not include the -ms- and -o-.

That is why I would like to ask professionals for some tips, and information which I cannot find here on Stack and on the Internet.

  1. Is the Compass dead now? If yes what should I use instead of it? (to be sure that it will add -ms-, -o- etc.)

  2. Is the Sass dead now?

  3. I did some research and the people say that I should not use the .sass but .scss, but on the other hand, if I use the .scss I won't be able to use the indented syntax. Should I avoid the indented syntax? If yes please specify why.


Solution

  • Since none of the answers are 100% accurate, I will provide my own answer.

    1. Is Compass dead? Yes, apparently. According to their GitHub page:

    Compass is no longer actively maintained.

    Compass seems to be dying because it is written in Ruby and there are much faster Sass transpilers written in C/C++, mainly LibSass. (Note: it is now the year 2024, and arm64 CPU's compile Sass with node at incredible speeds. Most projects that still use Sass for styling have moved to node-sass or dart-sass—both of which support Sass and SCSS syntax).

    What should you use now? Based on this GitHub issue conversation, I would recommend switching to Bourbon for a base set of utility mixins.

    1. Is Sass dead now? No, absolutely not. Modern Sass transpilers, including LibSass, fully support the Sass specification and work great.

    2. Should you avoid the Sass syntax? No. In my opinion, the Sass syntax is cleaner, easier to read, and is definitely easier to type.

    You can mix Sass and SCSS syntax. So you can import Bourbon SCSS syntax into your Sass syntax document and use the mixins without issue.

    In conclusion, use the syntax that makes you happier.