I wondered if anyone here has any experience with using Compass with the Sass CSS precompiler. It keeps lagging my computer when trying to watch a file with

compass watch file.scss

So, I've done a lot of digging behind the scenes to try and get to the bottom of why Compass keeps lagging when I try to watch a project.

I've updated everything I can think of to try and get to the latest versions of Ruby, Sass and Compass. Sass does not lag but Compass totally consumes my CPU and RAM when I watch a file.

Sass Version: Sass 3.4.13

Compass Version: 1.0.3

Ruby Version: 2.2.1p85 [i386-mingw32]

Windows Version: Windows [6.1.7601]

These are all the latest versions and files. I've done all updates and checks.

I know MACs come preinstalled with Ruby. Is it simply a case that I need to upgrade my computer? Even go to the step of getting a MAC to get Compass to work?

These are my specs.

Version: Windows 7.1 Ultimate Service Pack 1

Processor: AMD Phenom 8600B Triple-Core Processor 2.30 GHz

RAM: 2.00 GB (1.87GB usable)

64 bit Operating System

Thanks. :-)

Edited March 13, 201511 yr by webDesignerJon

Compass was, upon a time very useful for adding in vendor prefixes via mixins. I didn't use their other mixins much but some were decent. Compass though is huge and slows down the compilation process, and now with grunt/gulp tasks capable of post-processing doing the auto-prefixing after the sass has compiled it has left compass somewhat redundant. especially that grunt tasks are built upon npm so you can keep them all upto date on the fly (required vendor prefixes are continually changing)

 

Compass's massive size could be why things are going slow. What are you using for your Sass compilation? I recommend you use grunt and add in the sass task there along with autoprefixer. I'm running this on both a windows machine and a mac without issues.

Edited March 13, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

Yea that's not the first time I've hheard about Grunt and the like! Is Compass on its last legs then?

 

I have used and always have used Ruby with MS DOS to compile Sass. I've never had a problem watching Sass files for compiling but trying to do the same with Compass is a different kettle of fish!

i'd say so, Hugo Giraudel wrote a good article about why he doesn't use Compass anymore http://www.sitepoint.com/dont-use-compass-anymore/

Thanks for that! Will research a little more before giving up! It's got to be worth getting practical experience of these sorts of tools before moving onto the next :-)