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  1. Stackups
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  3. Templating Languages & Extensions
  4. Templating Languages And Extensions
  5. Handlebars.js vs Sass

Handlebars.js vs Sass

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Handlebars.js
Handlebars.js
Stacks8.3K
Followers3.2K
Votes308
Sass
Sass
Stacks44.8K
Followers32.2K
Votes3.0K
GitHub Stars15.3K
Forks2.2K

Handlebars.js vs Sass: What are the differences?

## Key Differences between Handlebars.js and Sass

Handlebars.js is a templating language that allows the creation of dynamic HTML content by allowing the insertion of variables and logic into the templates. On the other hand, Sass is a preprocessor scripting language that is interpreted or compiled into CSS. 

1. **Syntax**: Handlebars.js uses double curly braces {{ }} for its template expressions and logic, while Sass uses indentation and braces { } for defining styles and nested rules.
2. **Purpose**: Handlebars.js is mainly used for front-end templating and generating HTML content, whereas Sass is used for writing more maintainable and efficient CSS code.
3. **Variables**: Handlebars.js does not support defining variables, while Sass allows for the creation and usage of variables to store reusable values throughout the stylesheet.
4. **Mixins and Functions**: Sass supports the creation of mixins and functions to reuse styles and logic, while Handlebars.js focuses on templating and does not provide such features.
5. **Nested Rules**: Sass allows for nesting of CSS rules within one another, making the code cleaner and more organized, while Handlebars.js does not provide this feature.
6. **File Format**: Handlebars.js is used for HTML template files, typically with .hbs or .handlebars extensions, while Sass is used for CSS files, often with .scss or .sass extensions.

In Summary, Handlebars.js is a templating language primarily used for front-end development, while Sass is a CSS preprocessor that enhances the maintainability and organization of CSS code.

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Advice on Handlebars.js, Sass

Asad
Asad

Software Engineer at Lisec Automation

Jun 15, 2020

Needs adviceon.NET.NETHandlebars.jsHandlebars.js

@All: I am searching for the best template engine for .NET. I started looking into several template engines, including the Dotliquid, Handlebars.js, Scriban, and Razorlight. I found handlebar a bit difficult to use when using the loops and condition because you need to register for helper first. DotLiquid and Scriban were easy to use and in Razorlight I did not find the example for loops.

Can you please suggest which template engine is best suited for the use of conditional/list and looping and why? Or if anybody could provide me a resource or link where I can compare which is best?

Thanks In Advance

240k views240k
Comments
Anonymous
Anonymous

CEO at ME!

Jun 17, 2020

Needs adviceonSassSassStylusStylusPostCSSPostCSS

Originally, I was going to start using @{Sass}|tool:1171| with Parcel, but then I learned about @{Stylus}|tool:1172|, which looked interesting because it can get the property values of something directly instead of through variables, and @{PostCSS}|tool:3339|, which looked interesting because you can customize your Pre/Post-processing. Which tool would you recommend?

547k views547k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Handlebars.js
Handlebars.js
Sass
Sass

Handlebars.js is an extension to the Mustache templating language created by Chris Wanstrath. Handlebars.js and Mustache are both logicless templating languages that keep the view and the code separated like we all know they should be.

Sass is an extension of CSS3, adding nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance, and more. It's translated to well-formatted, standard CSS using the command line tool or a web-framework plugin.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
15.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
2.2K
Stacks
8.3K
Stacks
44.8K
Followers
3.2K
Followers
32.2K
Votes
308
Votes
3.0K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 106
    Simple
  • 76
    Great templating language
  • 50
    Open source
  • 36
    Logicless
  • 20
    Integrates well into any codebase
Pros
  • 613
    Variables
  • 594
    Mixins
  • 466
    Nested rules
  • 410
    Maintainable
  • 300
    Functions
Cons
  • 6
    Needs to be compiled
Integrations
Mustache
Mustache
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Handlebars.js, Sass?

Less

Less

Less is a CSS pre-processor, meaning that it extends the CSS language, adding features that allow variables, mixins, functions and many other techniques that allow you to make CSS that is more maintainable, themable and extendable.

TypeScript

TypeScript

TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.

Pug

Pug

This project was formerly known as "Jade." Pug is a high performance template engine heavily influenced by Haml and implemented with JavaScript for Node.js and browsers.

Stylus

Stylus

Stylus is a revolutionary new language, providing an efficient, dynamic, and expressive way to generate CSS. Supporting both an indented syntax and regular CSS style.

Mustache

Mustache

Mustache is a logic-less template syntax. It can be used for HTML, config files, source code - anything. It works by expanding tags in a template using values provided in a hash or object. We call it "logic-less" because there are no if statements, else clauses, or for loops. Instead there are only tags. Some tags are replaced with a value, some nothing, and others a series of values.

Slim Lang

Slim Lang

Slim is a template language whose goal is to reduce the view syntax to the essential parts without becoming cryptic. It started as an exercise to see how much could be removed from a standard html template (<, >, closing tags, etc...). As more people took an interest in Slim, the functionality grew and so did the flexibility of the syntax.

PostCSS

PostCSS

PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with JS plugins. These plugins can support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more.

RactiveJS

RactiveJS

Ractive was originally created at theguardian.com to produce news applications. Ractive takes your Mustache templates and transforms them into a lightweight representation of the DOM – then when your data changes, it intelligently updates the real DOM.

Bourbon

Bourbon

Bourbon is a library of pure sass mixins that are designed to be simple and easy to use. No configuration required. The mixins aim to be as vanilla as possible, meaning they should be as close to the original CSS syntax as possible.

EJS

EJS

It is a simple templating language that lets you generate HTML markup with plain JavaScript. No religiousness about how to organize things. No reinvention of iteration and control-flow. It's just plain JavaScript.

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