Less beautify error with Link style states

[nojaf]

Hi,

I'm using atom 0.119.0 on Windows to format my less file. Whoever the output isn't exactly better at all. Also there is a bug when using statements as &:hover and &:link

                    a {
                        line-height: @headerHeight;

display: block;
                        padding: 0px 15px;
                        font-size: 16px;
                        button {
                            font-size: 16px;
                        }
                        &:link {
                            color: @white;

text-decoration: none;
                        }
                        &:visited {
                            color: @white;

                        }
                        &:hover {
                            color: @orange;

                        }
                        &.green {
                            color: @green;

&:hover {
                                color: @white;

background-color: @green;

                            }
                        }

&:hover and &:link become &:(space)hover and &:(space)link. Which doesn't compile anymore.

[Glavin001]

Currently LESS is being beautified by the CSS beautifier of js-beautify.

See

atom-beautify/lib/language-options.js

Lines 95 to 101 in 04a23a0

	case 'Sass':
	case 'SCSS':
	case 'LESS':
	case 'CSS':
	text = beautifyCSS(text, self.getOptions('css', allOptions));
	beautifyCompleted(text);
	break;

You should forward this issue over to the js-beautify project, and see what they say. There may be problems handling LESS, or in a much more fortunate case, may be a setting that provides better LESS support and resolves your issue. If it is a setting and Atom Beautify is restricting this, let me know and I can reopen this and make the necessary adjustments to optimize js-beautify for LESS.

Hope we can find a solution for you!

[Glavin001]

It Pretty-Diff has been recommended by a contributor of LESS.js and switching Atom Beautify to prettydiff may resolve some LESS issues we have been having.

Could you try out http://prettydiff.com/ and let me know how well it works for you? If it works significantly better than js-beautify then we could migrate over in the future :).

/cc @mcdonnelldean

[mcdonnelldean]

@Glavin001 I tested Pretty-Diff using the sample LESS from my issue. The formatting looks perfect, I have also tested the sample from above and it looks good too.

@import "syntax-variables";
.editor-colors {
    background-color: @syntax-background-color;
    color: @syntax-text-color;
}
.editor {
    background-color: @syntax-background-color;
    color: @syntax-text-color;
    .wrap-guide {
        background-color: @syntax-wrap-guide-color;
    }
    .indent-guide {
        color: @syntax-indent-guide-color;
    }
    .invisible-character {
        color: @syntax-invisible-character-color;
    }
    .gutter {
        background-color: @syntax-gutter-background-color;
        color: @syntax-gutter-text-color;
        .line-number {
            &.cursor-line {
                background-color: @syntax-gutter-background-color-selected;
                color: @syntax-gutter-text-color-selected;
            }
            &.cursor-line-no-selection {
                color: @syntax-gutter-text-color-selected;
            }
        }
    }
}

a {
    display: block;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: @headerHeight;
    padding: 0px 15px;
    button {
        font-size: 16px;
    }
    &:link {
        color: @white;
        text-decoration: none;
    }
    &:visited {
        color: @white;
    }
    &:hover {
        color: @orange;
    }
    &.green {
        color: @green;
        &:hover {
            background-color: @green;
            color: @white;
        }
    }

[Glavin001]

Excellent news! Thank you, @mcdonnelldean!