What are the advantages of using CSS Pre-processors versus plain CSS?
Loaded question. Should be "What are the advantages and disadvantages of using CSS pre-processors versus plain CSS?"
Disadvantage: You are no longer writing your own CSS output, and more importantly you are now relying on a preprocessor for any update or change.
Advantage: Variables for global changes to things like site colours. Allows for faster theming and if done right can be much easier to maintain for future site changes.
Also I'm not sure I understand your point about relying on a preprocessor for updates and changes. If I want to stop using a preprocessor I can at any point.
Flynn O'Connor added Joey Kudish.
For me, the two disadvantages I've run into with LESS/SASS is:
1) Adding file dependency. If you LESS file is not up to date then it's basically useless. I've run into several sites were bad developers/designers have uploaded the changed CSS but not LESS file.
2) Over specificity. When people are new to LESS/SASS they wrap everything in very specific classes and id's making their CSS WAY to specific. This reduces the modular nature we should all be striving for in properly written CSS. Which is what I believe SMACSS is all about.
Just want to add two points in favor of pre-processors:
1. Most CSS Pre-processors are a super-group of CSS, meaning that bare CSS compiles perfectly fine.
2. Most pre-processors are the natural evolution of languages. Developers create these tools to help us do more, faster and better.
You can't blame the knife if a cook's food tastes bad.
Topics I'd like to see addressed in a potential meetup (if we went ahead with it). They don't all have to be addressed, so these are just ideas:
* What's a preprocessor?
* Talk about the different preprocessors, what the main differences are? (less, sass/scss/compass, any others?)
* Preprocessor workflows: command line tools and apps used to compile and deploy css files.
* Specific WordPress integrations (helper plugins perhaps)
* How to use a preprocessor in your theme or plugin? What about distribution?
* Talk about some of the discussion that have been going around in regards to using preprocessors for WordPress core (this is a very complex topic), e.g. noeltock.com
