Idea to switch from Sass and Compass to PostCSS.

[SpikeShape]

So I tried working with PostCSS and I liked the idea of removing the whole ruby business and switch back to "almost vanilla" CSS with some helpers written in Javascript instead of fully bloated compass most people don't even use.

I realized that compass hasn't been updated in quite some time so I was wondering if it would make sense to move away from it. Additionally PostCSS is supposedly faster.

What do you think about it?

[markusfalk]

I really like the idea of getting rid of ruby in this workflow.

I have tried before with experimenting with libsass (which I am using now and is much faster). But then you are only switching from ruby to C as a dependency.

This could be changed using postCSS. However, I see a few things that need to be figured out first.

• How will Kickstarts capability of importing raw CSS work out? (Currently accomplished with an additional gem)
• Bootstrap recently officially switched to SCSS . How would our custom build of it work out when using their CSS instead again? Because if we want to use their SCSS we are only adding to the complexity of the workflow.
• Also I have talked to the maintainers of the Node sass compiler. If this was actively developed it could offer best of both worlds maybe

I also agree with compass being nice but comprehensive. I too see devs not using most of its features.

Would you guys agree on dropping most of its functionality?

[SpikeShape]

I am not all about adding PostCSS but about removing Ruby in general. PostCSS just seemed like an alternative that has the bigger community and the best customization options to include it in the workflow.

A lot of SCSS and Compass features could be re-added by including plugins but instead of completely "mimicking" SCSS and Compass I am trying to compile a collection of default PostCSS plugins to add only these features we are using on a regular basis.

Yet, I am a bit concerned about dropping SCSS and realizing afterwards that we are missing a lot of features. On top of that I want to avoid looking for replacements for said features as we are working on a project.

Also I am not sure if the inclusion of SCSS works fine with PostCSS. I haven't tried that yet but I assume it would result in a huge plugin jam which would slow down the whole process again.

But a node sass compiler sounds too good to be true...
Would adding grunt-libsass or grunt-sass be viable alternatives?

[markusfalk]

As I said I too would like to get rid of ruby in Kickstart. But I don't want it in exchange for another dependency like C (altough this would make it faster).

Maybe you guys can try either one of them on a few projects and share your experience on what works best?