Web Workbench slow when creating sprites in Visual Studio 2012. A bug?

Hi

I am using latest version of Web Workbench with Visual Studio 2012.

When I am editing SASS code it takes forever to compile to css. It takes 2-3 minuts before its done. As i see it, it is because i am using "compass sprites" who takes all the time to compile.

I have 20 images in 2 folders that i am merging into 2 sprite files like this:

$sprite-spacing: 20px;
$sprites: sprite-map("sprite/*.png", $spacing: $sprite-spacing);
$sprites-retina: sprite-map("sprite-retina/*.png", $spacing: $sprite-spacing * 2);

@mixin sprite-bg($name, $dimensions: false, $x: 0, $y: 0)
{
    @include retina-sprite($name, $sprites, $sprites-retina, $dimensions, $x, $y);
}

@mixin retina-sprite($name, $sprites, $sprites2x, $dimensions, $x: 0, $y: 0)
{
    @if ($dimensions == true)
    {
        @include sprite-dimensions($sprites, $name);
    }

    background-image: sprite-url($sprites);
    background-position: sprite-position($sprites, $name, -($x), -($y));
    background-repeat: no-repeat;

    @media (min--moz-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (-o-min-device-pixel-ratio: 5/4), (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 1.25dppx)
    {
        &
        {
            $pos: sprite-position($sprites2x, $name, -($x), -($y*2));
            background-image: sprite-url($sprites2x);
            background-position: nth($pos, 1) nth($pos, 2)/2;
            @include background-size(ceil(image-width(sprite-path($sprites2x)) / 2), auto);
        }
    }
}


// random selector
div
{
    @include sprite-bg(arrow, true);    
}

I have tried to enable the "Enable experimental fixes" with no luck.

I have also tried this link with same result. A weird thing is that if i use the command prompt to watch the files with "$ compass watch" it only takes 2 seconds. That means that the plugin has a bug somewhere.

Any idea what might be going on?

Tommy

Hello Tommy

In Visual Studio, try going to Tools -> Options, scroll down to Web Workbench, then in the right hand pane, look for the Compass category and change "Force Compass recompile" to false.

Hope this helps!

-Jason Fauchelle

I just tried your fix and added a space to one SCSS file. Now it only takes 15 seconds, but that's is still pretty bad, right? But it's not 3 minuts :) If i add a new image to the sprite its still the same.

Hello Tommy

Good to hear the fix improved a lot of the performance drain. 15 seconds is still a bit slow. Make sure you still have EnableExperimentalFixes set to true as this can help. If it still takes 15 seconds, you can send us the scss files you are compiling and we'll see if we can reproduce and solve the perf issue at our end.

-Jason Fauchelle

Thanks, but the EnablExperimentalFixes did not do any different.

You can download the scss/gfx files here

Hello Tommy

Thanks for sending the files. Sorry this is taking a while, but we have not been able to reproduce this issue yet. To help us reproduce the issue, are you pointing Web Workbench to a custom Ruby install? If so, what gems do you have installed?

-Jason Fauchelle

I got these installed:

bigdecimal (1.2.0)
bootstrap-sass (3.1.1.0)
bundle (0.0.1)
bundler (1.6.0.rc)
chunky_png (1.3.0, 1.2.8)
compass (0.12.2)
compass-rails (1.1.3, 1.0.3)
fssm (0.2.10)
io-console (0.4.2)
json (1.7.7)
minitest (5.2.3, 4.3.2)
psych (2.0.0)
rake (10.1.1, 0.9.6)
rdoc (4.1.1, 4.0.0)
rubygems-update (2.2.2, 2.0.
sass (3.2.14, 3.2.9)
susy (1.0.9)
test-unit (2.5.5, 2.0.0.0)

I have testet the project on 2 other pc's. They also see this slow processing of the SCSS files.

I am pointing to: C:\Ruby200-x64\bin

Thanks Tommy

I have setup my environment to be as you described. When I edit one file and save, the whole compile process takes about 3 seconds.

This speed can be explained by my machine having an SSD. You have a lot of scss and images, so if you don't have an SSD this would easily suggest why you are seeing a 15 second full compile time. Looks like this is just how long it takes. Sorry we couldn't improve this.

-Jason Fauchelle

I am also running SSD so that might not be the problem. But how can you explaine that the problem is not there when i use the console instead of the mindscape plugin?

Hello Tommy

I've had another look at reproducing this, and if I delete all the sprites (which I hadn't been doing before) and perform a recompile, then I am seeing a compile time of over 10 seconds. The compiler won't remake the sprites if they aren't going to change, so the longer compile times that you're seeing may be occurring when you make a change that causes the sprites to be rebuilt.

Id be interested in benchmarking the difference when using Compass watch at the command line, could you give me an example set of steps to trigger a change where the command line is clearly faster and Ill look at reproducing this here

-Jason Fauchelle

Ok so for now i can guess there will be no fix, but thanks for looking into it :)