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Add to SafariWhen comparing Rework vs Sly, the Slant community recommends Rework for most people. In the question“What are the best CSS preprocessors/postprocessors?” Rework is ranked 6th while Sly is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Rework is:
Through transforms you can modify existing properties to give them new attributes and options, so instead of managing messy mixins, you can add a simple new attribute where they make the most sense.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Extend native properties
Through transforms you can modify existing properties to give them new attributes and options, so instead of managing messy mixins, you can add a simple new attribute where they make the most sense.
Pro Unrestricted potential
Because Rework plugins are done in code, there are no limits to what they can do, and they tend to provide more advanced functionality that would be harder to implement in other preprocessors, such as file I/O and custom logic.
Pro Built around plugins
Rework isn't a language for compiling to CSS but rather a library around parsing it and transforming it. For example, a vendor prefix plugin will inject prefixes around needed properties so you don't have to muddy up your CSS dealing with it.
Because Rework is built around plugins at its core, it makes for easier plugin writing if you find you want to add in new functionality.
Pro Can work with other preprocessors
Although you don't have to, since Rework works on vanilla CSS, you could use another preprocessor that has a syntax you enjoy more before applying Rework's transforms.
Pro Allows for customized properties
Rework plugins can recognize custom properties and transform them via plugins. This allows you to keep your CSS clean and expand its functionality in a native feeling way, without having to learn a bunch of new language constructs.
Pro Readable syntax
By using whitespaces and nesting, you don't need braces or semicolons. This helps with keeping the syntax as readable and minimal as possible.
Pro Supports variables out of the box
Sly has out of the box support for variables.
Cons
Con Replaced by PostCSS
Rework basically solves the same problem as the more popular PostCSS.
Con Difficult for beginners
Rework has a more involved setup that can make it an intimidating first option for beginners to css processing. As Rework is built around plugins, the documentation can't be found in one spot. The quality of documentation also varies between plugins.
Con Extremely limited adoption
Sly has just 5 stars on Github and a very small adoption rate. For an open source project this usually means less bugs reported, lesser documentation and few third-party learning resources.
Con Not stable
Sly is in the alpha stage.
