<p class="lead">{{_i}}Bootstrap is made with LESS at its core, a dynamic stylesheet language created by our good friend, <a href="http://cloudhead.io">Alexis Sellier</a>. It makes developing systems-based CSS faster, easier, and more fun.{{/i}}</p>
<p>{{_i}}One of Bootstrap's creators wrote a quick <a href="http://www.wordsbyf.at/2012/03/08/why-less/">blog post about this</a>, summarized here:{{/i}}</p>
<ul>
<li>{{_i}}Bootstrap compiles faster ~6x faster with Less compared to Sass{{/i}}</li>
<li>{{_i}}Less is written in JavaScript, making it easier to us to dive in and patch compared to Ruby with Sass.{{/i}}</li>
<li>{{_i}}Less is more; we want to feel like we're writing CSS and making Bootstrap approachable to all.{{/i}}</li>
<p>{{_i}}As an extension of CSS, LESS includes variables, mixins for reusable snippets of code, operations for simple math, nesting, and even color functions.{{/i}}</p>
<p class="lead">{{_i}}Since our CSS is written with Less and utilizes variables and mixins, it needs to be compiled for final production implementation. Here's how.{{/i}}</p>
{{_i}}<strong>Note:</strong> If you're submitting a pull request to GitHub with modified CSS, you <strong>must</strong> recompile the CSS via any of these methods.{{/i}}
<p>{{_i}}Install the LESS command line compiler, JSHint, Recess, and uglify-js globally with npm by running the following command:{{/i}}</p>
<pre>$ npm install -g less jshint recess uglify-js</pre>
<p>{{_i}}Once installed just run <code>make</code> from the root of your bootstrap directory and you're all set.{{/i}}</p>
<p>{{_i}}Additionally, if you have <a href="https://github.com/mynyml/watchr">watchr</a> installed, you may run <code>make watch</code> to have bootstrap automatically rebuilt every time you edit a file in the bootstrap lib (this isn't required, just a convenience method).{{/i}}</p>
<h3>{{_i}}Command line{{/i}}</h3>
<p>{{_i}}Install the LESS command line tool via Node and run the following command:{{/i}}</p>
<p>{{_i}}Be sure to include <code>--compress</code> in that command if you're trying to save some bytes!{{/i}}</p>
<h3>{{_i}}Javascript{{/i}}</h3>
<p>{{_i}}<a href="http://lesscss.org/">Download the latest Less.js</a> and include the path to it (and Bootstrap) in the <code><head></code>.{{/i}}</p>
<p>{{_i}}<a href="http://incident57.com/less/">The unofficial Mac app</a> watches directories of .less files and compiles the code to local files after every save of a watched .less file. If you like, you can toggle preferences in the app for automatic minifying and which directory the compiled files end up in.{{/i}}</p>
<p>{{_i}}Mac, Linux, and Windows app for drag and drop compiling of LESS files. Plus, the <a href="https://github.com/Paratron/SimpLESS" target="_blank">source code is on GitHub</a>.{{/i}}</p>
<p class="lead">{{_i}}<a href="./getting-started.html">Quickly start</a> any web project by dropping in the compiled or minified CSS and JS. Layer on custom styles separately for easy upgrades and maintenance moving forward.{{/i}}</p>
