Less Web Development Essentials

by Bass Jobsen

Use CSS preprocessing to streamline the development and maintenance of your web applications If you use CSS3 in your web development tasks and want to create maintainable and reusable code with Less, this book is ideal for you. Although you need to have some experience in web development, even beginners will find this book useful. Less is a CSS preprocessor that essentially improves the functionality of simple CSS with the addition of several features. The book begins by teaching you how Less facilitates the process of web development. You will quickly then move on to actually creating your first layout using Less and compiling your very first Less code. Next, you will learn about variables and mixins and how they will help in building robust CSS code. In addition, you'll learn how to keep your code clean and test it by using style guides. We will then move on to the concept of Bootstrapping and the strength of using Less with Twitter Bootstrap. Going one step further, you will be able to customize Twitter's Bootstrap 3 using Less. Finally, you will learn how to integrate Less into your WordPress themes and explore other web apps that use Less. By leveraging this powerful CSS preprocessor, you will be able to consistently produce amazing web applications while making CSS code development an enjoyable experience.

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Julio Biason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less is a compiler for CSS. Why do I feel I need to start a review with that? Because this book focuses a lot more on CSS than Less. Actually, I may have learnt more about CSS than what it was expected to learn. There is nothing wrong talking more about the base technology when the piece you're talking about is built on it, but when you talk a lot more about the first and not the second, you have to seriously reconsider your book title.

Another thing that annoys me is when the author keeps talking about the examples outside the book. "Check the examples which you can download in the previous URL" is lazy explanation. Instead of building knowledge blocks and then expand over them, the book uses the lazy escape of not telling you anything and expecting yo to read things somewhere else.

In the end, it's a nice book to learn a thing or two about modern CSS, but barely something good about Less.

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sono stato indeciso tra due e tre stelle, ma ho deciso per due perché, alla fin fine, non è molto di più del manuale online. Anzi, per alcune cose è anche di meno.

Spiega le basi (come scrivere codice LESS, come creare variabili, come fare i mixin) e qualche volta si spinge un po' oltre (come fare mixin ricorsivi), ma non riesce ad essere chiaro nelle spiegazioni, e, soprattutto per le funzioni interne, si limita a descriverne 3 o 4 e a lasciare il resto "come esercizio".

Abbastanza inutile, se avete una connessione a Internet e potete leggere il manuale ufficiale online.

[Markus Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contains practical examples of the use of variables, mixins and nested rules. Media queries and responsive design are explained very well. Good book to get started with Less. I would recommend it.