Sass Master Dale Sande brings expertise to 4-night class this February

This February, we’re introducing a new workshop that focuses on Sass, a popular CSS extension language. Experienced front-end developer and Code Fellows instructor Dale Sande shares with us why he is such an advocate for Sass and why he’s excited to lead the workshop.

Why Sass?

I get asked this question a lot. “Why do you like Sass so much?” “Why is Sass better than CSS?” “What makes Sass better than the others?” And the best one ever, “Doesn’t Sass just make things more complicated?”

In short, Sass really was a key player in kicking off a new revolution in front-end development. It was mainly responsible for the first generation of logical CSS thinkers and a new generation of UI architects. To this end, I have made learning Sass a core tenet of the Web UI Development Accelerator taught at Code Fellows.

Not everyone is able to attend the Development Accelerator, which is why we’re focusing on Sass in a smaller, one-week night course this February. It will be laser focused on mastering the basics of Sass, learning the more advanced features of Sass, and using Sass as an architectural tool in a larger application.

Who should learn Sass?

Do you ever write CSS? Then you need to learn Sass. It’s that simple. Traditional CSS is pretty amazing and there is a lot we can do with it, but at times it lacks fundamental ideas that we depend on in other languages, such as reusability and modularity. If you crave even those simple needs, then you should take this class.

Why is Code Fellows offering Responsive Web Design with Sass?

Without a doubt, Sass not only leads the way for pre-processors, but is also leading the way for reshaping the next generation of CSS. Standard CSS doesn’t have the tools that modern developers need. Sass does.

How much experience do you need for Sass and this course?

This week-long class is geared to quickly take you from zero to 60. We would expect that you come to the class understanding all the core concepts and syntax of CSS, the combinations of selectors, attributes, and values, and how to build a complete UI using style sheets.

Other skills that will be helpful in getting the most out of this are:

  1. Experience with Terminal.app or the CLI
    We’ll use this environment for running watchers that process Sass into CSS.

  2. A Ruby or Javascript background
    This is helpful but not required.

What will this course teach?

This class quickly covers the core concepts in Sass, including (but not limited to):

  • Core types
  • Variables
  • Operations
  • Nesting
  • Selector inheritance
  • Mixins
  • Built-in and custom functions
  • Different syntaxes
  • A style guide for clean code

Once we have addressed these introductory concepts, we’ll move on to more advanced concepts:

  • Lists
  • Maps
  • Engineering loops
  • Directives

We’ll also cover consuming and engineering libraries of Sass code written by some of the leading developers in the community.

To close out this amazing week of learning, we’ll answer the question, “Now that I know all of this, how do I organize my code?” This covers file/folder structures, partials and manifests, and core concepts for code management that will be an amazing asset in smaller projects, plus scale to the enterprise.

What do students need for class?

Preparation for this class is pretty simple. You will need a working computer running Sass locally via the command line, using either the native Ruby watcher or with Grunt.

Choosing between Ruby Sass or the C/C++ port Libsass is up to you. Here are some starter projects using Sass with Grunt:

Beyond that, just bring a healthy zest for learning and an open mind about CSS.


This February, join Dale for an in-depth, four-day night class focusing on responsive web design with Sass.

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