Book Review : Learning Less.js by Alex Libby

Less.js is an interesting technology which helps front-end developers to write css in a sophisticated way by using functions, variables,etc. Although getting started with this technology is fairly simple, we can only take it to its full potential by having a good resource like this book by Alex Libby.

Awesome Parts

1. This assumes that we have a fair understanding of HTML5, CSS3 and working JavaScript(JS). This book primarily focusses on implementing less.js and does not get into teaching basics of web technologies.
2. A lot of concepts used thought the book rely on ideologies taken from OOP languages.
3. This book took into consideration the wide variety of development Environments and OS. For instance, using MAMP() instead of WAMP(win).
4. I always was a bit skeptical of using less.js, reason being that users having JS is disabled will not have a properly styled page, if less.js is used. Also, I am in favour of decoupling styling with programming(or javascript in that case). The second chapter itself laid a solid optimism for this. The chapter explained how we can compile less.js to css and use this css in our production website without worrying if JS has been disabled by user.

Good Parts

1. The book starts with the basics of less.js and thus its a good book for beginners who have fair understanding of HTML5/CSS3/JS.
2. The book focusses on real case scenarios where less.js can be used like building CMS based websites, using less.js along with bootstrap,creating responsive websites via media-queries, etc.
3. There were parts that i could easily skip without worrying too much about flow, for instance installing servers, IDE, etc.

How book could have been better

1. This book would have been better if the it had been more brief.
2. I really liked the idea of having a video+book combination in JavaScript 24 hour Trainer. Having a similar concept would have made the book size a bit smaller and more precise.
3. Some of the sections like installing IDE,servers, etc could have been included in videos and people already familiar with these tools could skip these videos.
4. This book assumes that the reader has knowledge of HTML/CSS and javaScript; Thus, “the role of HTML & CSS”, “Choosing an IDE”, etc seemed to be ‘filler contents’. Although installing packages for IDE was quite essential, choosing an IDE seemed quite irrelevant.

SPIDer Rating : 7/10

You can purchase the book by clicking here.

Disclaimer: The book review is my personal opinion and the thoughts and suggestions expressed are my personal views.