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Use sass: http://sass-lang.com/ http://sass-lang.com/ In particular: sass --watch styles.scss Big productivity win.

nathos 16y ago
even better - use Compass: http://compass-style.org/ http://compass-style.org/ Takes Sass to the next level. Actually makes Blueprint usable.
- Fluxx 16y ago
  I'll take that one step further and say that Compass makes CSS intelligible, reusable and efficient to write. The Compass people have taken the time to understand what the right cross-browser techniques/best practices exist for lots of common CSS problems, so I don't have to worry about it. I wouldn't do CSS without it ever again.
  - chriseppstein 16y ago
    That's awesome to hear!
stevelosh 16y ago
Another alternative: LessCSS -- http://lesscss.org/ http://lesscss.org/ Include less.js in your page and you're done. No externally running process necessary -- the less.js file renders your .less files right in the browser.
- electrum 16y ago
  less.js has weird issues with caching. If you use @import, sometimes it won't ever refresh the imported files. It uses the HTML5 offline caching APIs, so even clearing your browser cache doesn't help (at least in Chrome).
isleyaardvark 16y ago
I love sass, but that's not what he's talking about. You still have to figure out your 2/3/whatever column layout. It's still a pain to figure out which elements to float and which to position absolutely. Much as I love sass, and I do love it, making the syntax easier to type doesn't make the fundamentals of the layout any easier. Eric Meyer has a great post on the subject: http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2009/02/17/wanted-layout-system/ http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2009/02/17/wanted-layout-s...
- ChuckMcM 16y ago
  To Eric's point, summarized here, layout is not style, and CSS is all about style. No word yet on a cascading layout sheets (CLS?) which would provide that sort of capability.

even better - use Compass: http://compass-style.org/ http://compass-style.org/ Takes Sass to the next level. Actually makes Blueprint usable.

Fluxx 16y ago
I'll take that one step further and say that Compass makes CSS intelligible, reusable and efficient to write. The Compass people have taken the time to understand what the right cross-browser techniques/best practices exist for lots of common CSS problems, so I don't have to worry about it. I wouldn't do CSS without it ever again.
- chriseppstein 16y ago
  That's awesome to hear!

stevelosh 16y ago

Another alternative: LessCSS -- http://lesscss.org/ http://lesscss.org/ Include less.js in your page and you're done. No externally running process necessary -- the less.js file renders your .less files right in the browser.

electrum 16y ago
less.js has weird issues with caching. If you use @import, sometimes it won't ever refresh the imported files. It uses the HTML5 offline caching APIs, so even clearing your browser cache doesn't help (at least in Chrome).

isleyaardvark 16y ago

I love sass, but that's not what he's talking about. You still have to figure out your 2/3/whatever column layout. It's still a pain to figure out which elements to float and which to position absolutely. Much as I love sass, and I do love it, making the syntax easier to type doesn't make the fundamentals of the layout any easier. Eric Meyer has a great post on the subject: http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2009/02/17/wanted-layout-system/ http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2009/02/17/wanted-layout-s...

ChuckMcM 16y ago
To Eric's point, summarized here, layout is not style, and CSS is all about style. No word yet on a cascading layout sheets (CLS?) which would provide that sort of capability.