How do I compile LESS code using Brackets? - css

I use Brackets as my text editor. How can I compile and convert my LESS code into CSS?
The following is a link from where I downloaded the LESS compiler but I don't know how to convert my code into CSS.
https://github.com/jdiehl/brackets-less-autocompile

You can install less-autocompile extension directly in Brackets using the second icon at the right of the editor. (I guess you are using last version of Brackets).
By default, when you save a less file, it will look for every .less file and compile them to .css files.
If you want to produce a single .css file, you'll have to add lines at the top of your less files.

Related

Can you generate .scss files from .css.map

I was given some files from another developer and was told to make some changes. Within the file structure, there's a .css file and a .css.map file.
I'm relatively new to SASS, but my understanding is that you create a .scss file and use command line: sass --watch style.scss:style.css, which generates the .css.map file and compiles the sass into css.
Is there a way to work backwards with just the .css file and the .css.map file to generate the .scss files, or did the other dev just maybe forget to give me these files?
The CSS is the output of Sass and you cannot generate the original Sass files from the CSS.
As stated by thesassway, source maps (.css.map) seek to bridge the gap between higher-level languages like CoffeeScript and Sass and the lower-level languages they compile down to (JavaScript and CSS). Source maps allow you to see the original source (the CoffeeScript or Sass) instead of the compiled JavaScript or CSS while debugging.
(TL;DR, they are for debugging)
If you were to edit the CSS output files without using SASS to compile them, the next person who writes in the Sass files and compiles them will overwrite your work.
I'm not sure why the other dev will want you to make changes directly to the CSS output files, but asking them for guidance on what that are expecting you to do won't hurt anyone. :)
Yes you can. Using Chrome, inspect something on the page, go to "Sources" tab, go to "Page" tab, expand down to the SCSS files generated from the CSS Map (basically the original SCSS files).
Example below is using WordPress and I was in your situation where all I had was the CSS Map file. Just copy and/or save the files one by one into the appropriate folder. Now you have the SCSS files :)

While converting from scss file to css file how to avoid conversion of any particular scss file into css?

While converting from scss file to css file how to avoid conversion of any particular scss file into css?
I have 20 scss file which eventually convert to css which make css file very large. I am trying to convert only few file to css and want to avoid other.
This question may seems directly asking for solution but i have searching answer for this quite long. but found most of the doc unrelated.
Please give suggestion or direction to solve this issue.
Add an underscore - to the start of the filename. From the official Sass documentation:
If you have a SCSS or Sass file that you want to import but don't want to compile to a CSS file, you can add an underscore to the beginning of the filename. This will tell Sass not to compile it to a normal CSS file. You can then import these files without using the underscore.

How to convert SCSS to CSS automatically

How can I automatically convert (compile) ".scss" code to standard CSS using GULP? Right now, I have to run the terminal command every time I want to compile, but I don't want having to re-enter the command every time.
Just use
sass --watch app/sass:public/stylesheets
this where:
app/sass is location of scss files and public/stylesheets location where you want to have css. It will automatically convert scss to css after each save of the sass files.
More details here: http://sass-lang.com/guide

Both SCSS and CSS files in plugin directory?

Forgive me if this is naive, but I am used to using just CSS. Sass seems pretty cool and I'm down to learn it, but for some reason many of the Javascript or jQuery plugins I'm downloading have both a CSS and SCSS file associated with the stylesheet. I don't want to have to be editing two files to get results on the page, why would both be there when they seem like copies except for a few key areas? See image below, seems like there is an extra CSS file per SCSS. Is that because some browsers cannot compile the SCSS?
CSS and SCSS in same directory
Is that because some browsers cannot compile the SCSS?
Yes. There is a command line utility which converts the .scss to .css. Probably the .map file is a reverse-conversion aid for browser inspectors that understand it.
Whenever I have generated files (like a .min.js, or in your case .css that came from a .scss), I make sure the appropriate command-line conversion tool is executed automatically as part of my build script.
I'm not sure what kind of build system you are using, but there is some command line tool for conversion that will need to be executed.
You are not expected to manually update both formats. SCSS to CSS command-line converters existed long before any browser (is there one yet?) started to support SCSS.
No browser (at least major) is able to directly use SASS (or LESS). You always need to compile scss files to css, before you could use them.
You can compile css by build tools like grunt or gulp. You can even configure it to watch updates in scss files and recompile css if anything was changed.
You could have following types of files after build:
style.scss <- this is source file
style.css <- this is css file created from SASS file
style.min.css <- this is css file minified
style.css.map <- this is source map of scss file
Here you can read why css files are minified. Here you can read what are source maps for.

How to fix when someone edits css output of an existing sass file

A person directly edited the css output file. Am I in trouble here? He made edits all throughout the file and if I'm understanding correctly, my changes will overwrite his when I recompile. Is there anyway to keep everything but still work in my scss files? Could I take the entire css file and try the reverse css to scss path to get everything together?
One option would be to save the edited CSS file and then compare it to your compiled CSS file, allowing you to determine what the changes are and add them to your Sass file.
Save the edited CSS file as FileA.css.
Recompile your Sass file into FileB.css
Load files FileA.css and FileB.css into a diff viewer, something like DiffChecker or a desktop app like Kaleidoscope.
Determine the changes and add the appropriate Sass to your original .sass file.

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