Question

I am trying to follow Sass -> CSS converter code on Sass website.

template = File.load('stylesheets/sassy.sass')
sass_engine = Sass::Engine.new(template)
output = sass_engine.render
puts output

And I get this error while I’m trying to File.load

SyntaxError in PublishController#index

/Users/jkim/rails/support-rhapsody/app/assets/stylesheets/application.sass:1: target of repeat operator is not specified: /* http:/
/Users/jkim/rails/support-rhapsody/app/assets/stylesheets/application.sass:2: no .<digit> floating literal anymore; put 0 before dot
   v2.0 | 20110126
      ^
/Users/jkim/rails/support-rhapsody/app/assets/stylesheets/application.sass:2: syntax error, unexpected tINTEGER
   v2.0 | 20110126
       ^
/Users/jkim/rails/support-rhapsody/app/assets/stylesheets/application.sass:3: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting $end
   License: none (public domain) */

But when I do File.read, it works fine until output = sass_engine.render.

I get this error,

NoMethodError in PublishController#index

undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass

What’s the difference between File.read and File.load? And if you know how to fix this problem in Sass, even better.

Answer 1

Well in the Ruby Kernel method #load it means evaluate the text loaded as code which is what it looks like is being done here. File.read loads the text as a String.

From sass docs for Sass::Engine.new

Creates a new Engine. Note that Engine should only be used directly when compiling in-memory Sass code. If you’re compiling a single Sass file from the filesystem, use Sass::Engine.for_file. If you’re compiling multiple files from the filesystem, use Sass::Plugin.

So do that.