WinLess 2 - Project status and future

[marklagendijk]

Project status (5 Nov 2014)
WinLess 1.x is now in maintenance mode. This means that at this time no feature requests will be accepted. Bug reports are still welcome, but all current issues are closed to make sure that the open issues are only about current bugs.

WinLess 2.x is a rewrite of WinLess using node-webkit. The development of WinLess 2.0 can be followed here. Most of the work is done, however, since my priorities have shifted it is now not clear whether it will ever be finished. Feature requests will only be accepted after the 2.0 release.

Original post (7 Mar 2014)
Yesterday I found out about node-webkit, a super cool app runtime with which you can create desktop applications using HTML / Javascript / CSS, AND Node.js modules.
I feel stupid for not finding out about node-webkit before, two alternatives to WinLess are already based on it.

I made a start with WinLess 2. WinLess 2 will be an AngularJS application based on node-webkit, how cool is that!
I am striving to make WinLess 2 very similar to WinLess 1, while at the same time solving some problems which WinLess 1 has.

I don't know when a first version of WinLess 2 will be ready. I expect that it will take a few weeks (my free time is limited). I am already looking for some people who would be willing to beta test WinLess 2, so that we can quickly release as soon as it is ready.

Just reply here if you want to help with testing.

[sprynm]

I had to switch to Koala for source map support but I would be happy to beta your v2.

[cnanney]

I'd be happy to test it out.

[smajl]

Sounds cool! Willing to beta test too..

[sprynm]

A couple ideas for beta 2:

• configurable folder environments: set variables, mixins, theme files to be the base includes for all other files. For instance, this would allow all Bootstrap files to compile individually.
• compile stats in debug mode: a report of the impact includes made to the line numbers and bytes of the output. A good way to trouble shoot bloating issues.
• CSScomb sorting. Creates more repeatable patterns in the output which then compresses better.

[marklagendijk]

@sprynm those would be features of the LESS language itself. WinLess just uses the existing LESS compiler to do the actual compiling.

See lesscss.org for all features of LESS. I believe you are looking for:

• @import (reference) "someFile". See import options.
• &:extend(.clearfix). See extend.

[pafnuty]

Ready to test v2

[marklagendijk]

Hey everyone,
I just closed all issues. I don't have much time to work on / maintain WinLess. I will make sure that WinLess keeps working with the newests less. Also I will try to look into any major / blocking bugs which totally break WinLess.

I do hope that somewhere in the future I may find some time to finish, and start maintaining, WinLess 2.0. However, I doubt whether this will ever happen.

As long as WinLess does what you need to do, great. If you have to much issues with it, do make sure that you know the alternatives.

Cheers,

Mark

[toslan]

There is no installer in the last 1.9.0 version. Just .warsetup file. Could you make .msi ?

[pgarnek]

Any chances to get the beta (2.0) version? :-)