SASS: Native Ruby + SASS

• Good: Fastest server compilation
• Good: Able to use latest versions of SASS, including all relevant options via flags to the sass and scss command-line executables
• Bad: Setup time is more intensive than with a pre-built extension or plugin for VS
• Bad: Every front end dev workstation needs ruby setting up
• Bad: More difficult for .NET devs to solve possible ruby integration issues

SASS via NuGet and Squishy SASS

• Good: Decent server compilation
• Good: Able to use latest versions of SASS
• Good: Minification of CSS and JS out of the box
• Good: and Con: Setup time is a bit less intensive that with native Ruby (above), but a bit more than with Workbench (below)
• Bad: as of right now, it’s not supporting placeholders (here is the open issue on github  https://github.com/jetheredge/SquishIt/issues/280 and a possible solution https://github.com/jetheredge/SquishIt/pull/281)
• Bad: Documentation is a bit sparse (support group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/squishit|https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/squishit)
• Bad: The most obvious issue is that these solutions require a server side component, adding a dependency, tying you to a platform and consuming your valuable CPU cycles. Modern, single page web applications perform rendering tasks on the client, relying on server side processes purely for process and data access. Adding a dependency like this just adds unnecessary complexity

(Documentation: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/webdev/serverprogramming/aspnet/squishit-and-nancy/, https://github.com/jetheredge/SquishIt/wiki/Using-SquishIt-programmatically-without-the-file-system)

SASS via Visual Studio plugin like Mindscape Web Workbench

• Good: Easy to get started
• Good: Fast compiling
• Bad: what you gain in simplicity you lose in flexibility
• Bad: Only a few of the options that the “sass” command supports are available when compiling (the –g debug flag), and the rest of the features are not very configurable.
• Bad: Every developer working with SASS styles needs an IDE plugin
• Bad: Can’t quickly change styles on the server – requires local re-processing
• Bad: The most obvious issue is that these solutions require a server side component, adding a dependency, tying you to a platform and consuming your valuable CPU cycles. Modern, single page web applications perform rendering tasks on the client, relying on server side processes purely for process and data access. Adding a dependency like this just adds unnecessary complexity

( Web Workbench by Mindscape)