Question

I have been looking at LESS (http://lesscss.org/) which adds variables and macro like features to CSS. This means you can define an RGB colour once somewhere, then use that variable all through your CSS. Basically, it looks like a really cool solution.

However, it depends on Ruby, which is not part of my normal dev stack, so I thought I would ask here to see if anyone knows of similar CSS extensions that are implemented in other languages that I might be able to add to my tool chain more easily?
Thanks.

Answer 1

A recent article in Smashing Magazine mentions the following tools:

dtcss (PHP preprocessor for CSS)

#define mp margin, padding
#define bg background
#define fg color

#define FONT Verdana, sans-serif

html, body {
        mp: 0;
        bg: #000;
        fg: #eee;
}
body {
        font: small FONT;
}
input, textarea {
        font: 1em FONT;
}

.fancy {
        border-top-left: 2px solid #00f;
        border-bottom-right: 4px dashed #f00;
        b {
                color: yellow;
        }
}

JSON CSS (based on jQuery) — see Jonathan’s answer

I don’t have any experience with either of these, but I’d be interested in hearing experiences from others 🙂