ruby script/plugin install http://svn.hamptoncatlin.com/haml/trunk/

The most basic element of Haml is a shorthand for creating HTML tags:

  %tagname{ :attr1 => 'value1', :attr2 => 'value2' } Contents

No end-tag is needed; Haml handles that automatically. Adding class and id attributes is even easier. Haml uses the same syntax as the CSS that styles the document:

  %tagname#id.class

In fact, when you're using the tag, it becomes even easier. Because is such a common element, a tag without a name defaults to a div. So

  #foo Hello!<pre>

becomes
<pre>  Hello!

Haml uses indentation to bring the individual elements to represent the HTML structure. A tag's children are indented two spaces more than the parent tag. Again, a closing tag is automatically added. For example:

  %ul
    %li Salt
    %li Pepper

becomes:

  
    Salt
    Pepper
  

You can also put plain text as a child of an element:

  %p
    Hello,
    World!

It's even possible to embed Ruby code into Haml documents. An equals sign, =, will output the result of the code. A hyphen, -, will run the code but not output the result. You can even use control statements like if and while:

  %p
    Date/Time:
    - now = DateTime.now
    %strong= now
    - if now > DateTime.parse("December 31, 2006")
      = "Happy new " + "year!"

Haml provides far more tools than those presented here. Check out the reference documentation in the Haml module. === Sass At its most basic, Sass is just another way of writing CSS. Although it's very much like normal CSS, the basic syntax offers a few helpful features: tabulation (using *two spaces*) indicates the attributes in a rule, rather than non-DRY brackets; and newlines indicate the end of an attribute, rather than a semicolon. For example:

  #main
    :background-color #f00
    :width 98%

becomes:

  #main {
    background-color: #f00;
    width: 98% }

However, Sass provides much more than a way to make CSS look nice. In CSS, it's important to have accurate selectors, so your styles don't just apply to everything. However, in order to do this, you need to use nested element selectors. These get very ugly very quickly. I'm sure everyone's had to write something like "#main .sidebar .top p h1 a", followed by "#main .sidebar .top p h1 a:visited" and "#main .sidebar .top p h1 a:hover". Well, Sass gets rid of that. Like Haml, it uses indentation to indicate the structure of the document. So, what was:

  #main {
    width: 90%;
  }
  #main p {
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 1px;
    border-color: #00f;
  }
  #main p a {
    text-decoration: none;
    font-weight: bold;
  }
  #main p a:hover {
    text-decoration: underline;
  }

becomes:

  #main
    :width 90%
    p
      :border-style solid
      :border-width 1px
      :border-color #00f
      a
        :text-decoration none
        :font-weight bold
      a:hover
        :text-decoration underline

Pretty nice, no? Well, it gets better. One of the main complaints against CSS is that it doesn't allow constants. What if have a color or a width you re-use all the time? In CSS, you just have to re-type it each time, which is a nightmare when you decide to change it later. Not so for Sass! You can use the "!" character to set constants. Then, if you put "=" after your attribute name, you can set it to a constant. For example:

  !note_bg= #55aaff

  #main
    :width 70%
    .note
      :background-color= !note_bg
    p
      :width 5em
      :background-color= !note_bg

becomes:

  #main {
    width: 70%; }
    #main .note {
      background-color: #55aaff; }
    #main p {
      width: 5em;
      background-color: #55aaff; }

You can even do simple arithmetic operations with constants, adding numbers and even colors together:

  !main_bg= #46ar12
  !main_width= 40em

  #main
    :background-color= !main_bg
    :width= !main_width
    .sidebar
      :background-color= !main_bg + #333333
      :width= !main_width - 25em

becomes:

  #main {
    background-color: #46a312;
    width: 40em; }
    #main .sidebar {
      background-color: #79d645;
      width: 15em; }

A comprehensive list of features is in the documentation for the Sass module.

There is currently no advanced documentation for this plugin.