SASS, which stands for “Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets,” is an extension of the CSS language that adds programming features, saving you time and organizing your project beautifully with a solid structure. This is especially crucial in large projects, making error possibilities very low, particularly in Front-End development. If you aim for professionalism, learning SASS is indispensable.
SASS is not a programming language itself; it’s an engine or processor for CSS. When using SASS, you can perform programming operations within a regular CSS file. Despite appearing like a programming language in its usage, it is built on the Ruby language. It doesn’t require a server to work, but running it on your machine will need some tools.
Why Use SASS?
SASS is known for its speed, ease of use, and, most importantly, the flexibility and organization it brings to your project. Its high-level programming features set it apart. For example, features like functions, loops, and if conditions allow you to organize your project’s designs into sections, call them all within one SASS file, and then convert them to CSS. This avoids the need to search within a massive page for the line that makes the text color blue. While it might not seem crucial for a personal website project, the importance becomes evident when working on a large project with multiple pages and details.
Advantages of SASS
SASS code is more organized compared to CSS. While CSS and Sass theoretically have the same capabilities, Sass can accomplish the same task with less code. This makes Sass code easier to read and understand, especially in large web projects involving a team of developers.
Sass provides a stable environment. Since its launch in 2006, Sass has been supported by its core developers as well as major technology companies. Consequently, Sass can be considered a mature and up-to-date language. When used in your projects, it makes error possibilities very low.
Who Should Learn SASS?
Anyone interested in becoming a Front-End developer can benefit from learning Sass along with Git & GitHub, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. Sass is a fantastic way to excel in the job market. Remember that Sass is primarily a way to write CSS code more efficiently, with an organized structure. Knowing Sass indicates that you can complete tasks more quickly and have the necessary skills to work on large and complex web projects.
Learning Resources and Tools
Sass Tutorial for Beginners — CSS With Superpowers By Free Code Camp
SASS Official Website
Contains essential information, and updates, and should be followed regularly.
SASS Meister
A website to experiment with code without an editor is useful if you encounter any issues with the tools during learning.
Prepros Software
Allows you to minify and optimize CSS, JS, and images with a single click. It can compile almost all preprocessing languages, including Sass.