Client use - Variables

[Jamtis]

.complementary-hsla(@name, @hue, @saturation, @lightness, @alpha) {
  @{name}: hsla(@hue, @saturation, @lightness, @alpha);
  @{name}-inverse: hsla(360 - @hue, 100% - @saturation, 100% - @lightness, 1 - @alpha);
}

.complementary-hsla("@text-color", 0, 0%, 0%, .73);

.class {
    color: @text-color;
    background: @text-color-inverse;
}

breaks the current client version 1.7.4 but compiles fine in 1.6.0 to

.class {
  color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.73);
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.27);
}

Error message is NameError: variable @text-color is undefined.

[seven-phases-max]

I'm afraid this was just a bug in 1.6.0. There's no such Less feature as "defining a variable with name defined in another variable", i.e. this:

@name: "@whatever";
@{name}: 123;

is supposed to be compiled to

"@whatever": 123;

as expected.

Note that @{var}: 123 syntax is added for Property Interpolation only (you should not use it to define a new variables).

Curiously, your code still will compile with current Less versions if you change "@text-color" to ~"@text-color" but yet again this is no more than just unintentional bogus - this "feature" is not officially supported and not guaranteed to work in next releases.

[seven-phases-max]

Closing as "expected behaviour" (the related bug though is raised in #2133).