Desktop source compilers are companion applications that help speeding up the web development workflow. The GUI applications abstract common complex terminal based approaches and provide deeper insight on top of that. Most apps have a preview server, common stylesheet compilers, html template compilers and JavaScript tools built-in.
CodeKit
The CodeKit app is one of the most advanced desktop source compilers and is very easy to use:
It has built-in support for the following pre processors and tools:
- Sass
- Less
- Stylus
- CoffeeScript
- TypeScript
- Uglify.js
- Jade (Pug)
- Haml
- Slim
- Markdown
- JSHint
- JSLint
- Bless
- Autoprefixer
- Bourbon
- Neat
- Bower
Other Tools
| Name | Kind |
|---|---|
| Compass.app | Paid |
| Ghostlab | Paid |
| Hammer | Paid |
| Koala | Free |
| LiveReload | Paid |
| Prepros | Paid |
| Scout | Free |
| SimpLESS | Free |