Difference Between SASS and SCSS
SASS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) is a style sheet language designed by Hampton Catlin and developed by Chris Eppstein and Natalie Weizenbaum. It is a pre-processor scripting language that will be compiled or interpreted into CSS. SassScript is itself a scripting language. Its typing discipline is dynamic. SCSS is often called Sassy CSS, which was introduced as the main syntax for the SASS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets), which builds on top of the existing CSS syntax. It makes use of semicolons and brackets like CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets). SCSS is a superset of CSS, i.e. all the CSS features will be available in SCSS and contains few features of the SASS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets). SCSS makes any CSS term as a valid one.
Head to Head Comparison between SASS and SCSS (Infographics)
Below is the top 9 difference between SASS and SCSS :
Key Differences Between SASS and SCSS
Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference:
- SASS is Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets and is an extension of CSS, which provides the features of nested rules, inheritance, Mixins, whereas SCSS is Sassy Cascaded Style Sheets which is similar to that of CSS and fills the gaps and incompatibilities between CSS and SASS. It was licensed under the MIT license. It first appeared in the year 2006.
- SASS is easier to use and has lesser complex syntax to use, which eliminates the semicolons, curves, braces, etc., whereas SCSS is a completely compatible one with CSS and has a file extension of types .scss.
- SASS has features of best coding standards and good official documentation, whereas SCSS is easier to learn to develop the code.
- SASS is based on javascript and supports different language extensions, has its own syntax, open-source CSS Pre-processor and advanced features such as control and directives and its libraries whereas SCSS.
- SASS is more difficult to integrate with existing CSS project by rewriting the code, whereas SCSS is easier to integrate with the existing code base by sampling adding new code rather than rewriting the existing code base.
- SASS is easier to use, read and write, whereas SCSS is more logical and complex in implementing the code.
- SASS variables will be started with a dollar ($) sign, whereas SCSS has modular features to organize the code in a more modular way by using some kind of annotations.
- SASS has advanced syntax features and has a .sass extension for its files, whereas SCSS has the feature like every valid CSS file is an SCSS file.
- SASS is similar to that of Ruby and requires Ruby for its installation and has no strict code indentations, whereas SCSS is similar to CSS and can be easily used without any extra installations or configurations.
- SASS has local and global variables to be used across the different locations of the CSS files, whereas SCSS has different variables such as color variables, and those can be used later in the style sheets.
- SASS has a nesting feature to nest the CSS selectors to display in the HTML, and also, it is difficult to maintain the longer hierarchical nested CSS, whereas SCSS can handle multiple classes and different nested styles.
- SASS has a documentation style, which is better than CSS and has manipulation features for color, attributes, and parameter lists, whereas SCSS syntaxes have margin, list style, padding, display, etc.
- SASS has Control Directives, Function Directives, Mixins and has extensible features, whereas SCSS can be used along with SASS to represent CSS similar features.
- After the initial development, SASS was extended to SassScript. It supports cross-platform operating systems. It was influenced by CSS, LESS, YAML, etc. The types of file extensions for this SASS are .scss and .sass, and its official implementation is also an open-source project which was developed using Ruby.
SASS vs SCSS Comparison Table
Below is the topmost Comparison between SASS vs SCSS
| The basis Of Comparison |
SASS |
SCSS |
| Definition | It is called Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets. | It is called Sassy Cascaded Style Sheets. |
| Usage | It is used when the original syntax is required for the development. | It is used when there is no requirement or criteria about the code syntax used. |
| Integration | It can be integrated along with any kind of project as it supports all the versions of CSS. | It can also be integrated with any package or project as it is the superset to CSS, which contains all CSS features. |
| Platform | It supports any operating systems or platforms. | It supports cross-platform operating systems. |
| Syntax | The syntax constraints are very less and can be written simply. | It has more constraints like semicolon etc. |
| Community | It has a greater community of designers and developers. | It has a smaller community and very less individual contributors to support it. |
| License | It was licensed and modified under MIT license. | It was also licensed under MIT. |
| Rules | It has fewer constraints in terms of rules. | It is more expressive and more syntax oriented. |
| Documentation | It provides documentation using SassDoc. | It allows good inline documentation in the code itself. |
Conclusion
SASS vs SCSS both are CSS Pre-processors which are of great use to be included in the CSS based UI (User Interface) or front-end frameworks to ease the development. These SASS vs SCSS frameworks provide great features in utilizing the CSS features at a high level in programmatically utilizing the powerful CSS features. SASS is a kind of CSS extensions where most of the features will be extended, and SCSS is a kind of superset to CSS where all the features of CSS will be in SCSS. The choice of the pre-processor depends on the functionalities and features as required to make the application work efficiently by making the trade-off choice in an effective manner.
SASS is easier to use and requires less syntax or configuration compared to SCSS and is recommended in the case of larger applications that need faster development scope and easier to develop complex components, whereas SCSS can be used in the case of optimization Mixin features, and many other effective techniques.
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