Add daily email for 2025-02-28

Do we still need CSS preprocessors?

source/_daily_emails/2025-02-28.md

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+---
+title: Do we still need CSS preprocessors?
+date: 2025-02-28
+permalink: daily/2025/02/28/preprocessors
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - css
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+  With all the recent improvements to CSS, do we still need preprocessors like Sass and Less?
+---
+
+Before I started to use [Tailwind CSS][0], I used CSS preprocessors like Less and Sass to add features like variables and nesting to my CSS files.
+
+Stylesheets would be written in .scss, .sass or .less files and processed to create the stylesheets that would be used by browsers.
+
+But, with the recent improvements to CSS, do we still need these preprocessors?
+
+Here's a very small example of some CSS that just works:
+
+```css
+:root {
+  --color-primary: red;
+  --color-secondary: green;
+}
+
+a {
+  color: var(--color-primary);
+
+  &:hover, &:focus {
+    color: var(--color-secondary);
+  }
+}
+```
+
+It looks like a Sass file, but it's native CSS.
+
+It has variables (a.k.a. custom properties) and nesting, which I think are the most used features from preprocessors.
+
+But there's no additional build step to generate the end stylesheet. I can use this stylesheet as it is - making it easier to work on and less confusing for new Developers.
+
+If I'm not using Tailwind CSS or atomic styles, writing plain CSS files is the approach I'd use.
+
+No preprocessors needed.