The new version of Web Workbench uses the Sass command line syntax

At the top of all of my .scss files I've been using the following code to keep the files compressed between the multiple developers who might be working on them.

//* scss-compile-options: :style => :compressed

This has been working just fine for quite a while, and it's a tip I found right here on the forums. Today I updated Mindscape (to version 3.2.288.20623) to find out that this no longer works! Now when I save I get the following output:

/* Error launching Sass compiler: Mindscape.VisualSass.Integration.Compilation.CodeGenerationException: This file has a //* scss-compile-options: directive containing an old-style Ruby hash.  The new version of Web Workbench uses the Sass command line syntax.  Please update your directive or contact Mindscape if you need help adapting it to command line syntax.
at Mindscape.VisualSass.Integration.Compilation.ScssCompiler.GetCompilerOptions(String scss, ICompilationSettings settings)
at Mindscape.VisualSass.Integration.Compilation.ScssCompiler.CompileCore(String scss, String sourceFilePath, String rootPath, IEnumerable`1 additionalPaths, ICompilationSettings settings, ICompilerContext context, CompilationResult result) */

I'm not familiar at all with SASS command-line syntax, so I'm looking for a little help here.

I also just want to vent my frustration that this minor update can bring our entire development team to a screeching halt for all CSS updates until we find a workaround here :(

Hi Chris,

Firstly apologies for the inconvenience. This change was needed as we have upgraded the underlying engine for Sass compilation to use Ruby directly rather than hosting IronRuby as we have in previous versions as the performance of IronRuby was causing a number of issues. We have not done a great job in communicating this, so we will certainly be trying to do better in the future.

You will want to update your directive to:

//* scss-compile-options: --style compressed

In essence instead of using the hash syntax you are just switching to a --[option] [value] where as previously you would have used :[option] => :[value]

Jeremy

Ah, thanks! Works like a charm. I just wish there was some documentation of this stuff somewhere other than some forum posts.

Indeed, what things can we do as LESS users?

This syntax is specific to SASS, we dont have an equivalent for LESS as there is no need since we already pass through the filename and paths options to the parser as per http://lesscss.org/#-client-side-usage

If you think there is something we are missing though that you would need control over please let us know!

Jeremy

Since the most recent update, when I use the scss-compile-options at the beginning of my file, that asterisk seems to trick certain following lines to think they are commented out. Functionally this code all works fine, but the syntax highlighting is all messed up. Any possible solutions for this, or do we just need to wait for another update?

I am getting the same. If you have an extra .scss file that had two lines: one for the compressed style, the other importing your working scss file. That could stop you getting the syntax errors on the file you are working in and still allow for the output style. A bit round about but you never know

Thanks for reporting this - this does look like a bug in the highlighting so I will look into this and let you know once we have an update which resolves this.

Jeremy

I have applied some fixes for the syntax highlighting which we believe resolves this and this will be in the latest nightly build and gallery update from today. Let me know if you continue to have issues after updating.

Jeremy

This update seems to fix the syntax highlighting, thanks for being so proactive on this fix!

Hmm, the most recent update seems to have re-introduced this bug again. See my screenshot and all the links that appear to be commented out. If I remove line 1 everything looks normal.

Sounds odd, Im not seeing the same problem here. Is it possible for you to send us through that specific file in case there is something else going on here? I have tried typing in the contents of what is in that screenshot but highlights fine for me here and your color scheme would seem to indicate that directives are being highlighted the same comments so could you try changing the CSS Extension Directive color to something else just to confirm that its not just that?

Jeremy

Sure, I can sent the file when I'm back at work tomorrow, but that screenshot shows the entire file's contents.

I did just install the Web Tools 2012.2 VS Update, could that have anything to do with it?

I've attached the file that shows issues. Keep in mind that it's not just this one file, but every file that has the same first line as this one.

Looks fine here - have you checked what your CSS Extension Directive color is set to, also do you have any other extensions installed which might be trying to do any highlighting?

Jeremy

After doing some reasearch I've found thatothers are having the same issues after installing the VS Web Essentials extension. It adds syntax support for SCSS (but oddly no compilation to CSS like Mindscape does... whatever). Since they both do syntax highlighting, they seem to fight over who has control. A few people have griped about the same thing in this support request.

Thanks for the update - yes Web Essentials conflicts with WW in a number of ways mostly due to the way Visual Studio handles extensions which are trying to hook the same things (e.g. it doesn't do anything leading to problems..) so you will need to disable WE. You will also find that the order in which you install WW vs WE will alter what conflicts arise - again another quirk of Visual Studio extensions sadly.

Jeremy