Compass v0.12 is Released

By Chris Eppstein

Compass 0.12 is out! Install it now:

$ (sudo) gem install compass

This release is primarily to support the Rails Asset Pipeline which required major changes to the Compass internals. If you use rails with Compass please read the blog post about the new compass-rails gem.

In addition to the rails improvements this release contains many updates to Compass Sprites:

Sprite Layouts: vertical (default), horizontal, diagonal, and smart layouts are now available. Different layouts may allow you to use sprites more easily with differing design requirements. The smart layout will efficiently pack sprites of different sizes -- resulting in smaller file sizes. To select a layout set the $<spritename>-layout variable to your desired layout name.
Sprite Load Path: Sprite source files can now be stored in more locations than just your images directory. To add sprite locations in your compass configuration: `sprite_load_path << 'my/sprite/folder'
Sprite output location: If you need to output sprites to a location other than the images directory set generated_images_dir, generated_images_path, http_generated_images_dir, and http_generated_images_path in your compass configuration according to your needs. You can refer to images in your generated images directory using the generated-image-url() function.

Additionally there are many new CSS3 improvements, bug fixes, and other small enhancements that you can read about in the CHANGELOG.

What's next for Compass? First, we've added Anthony Short to the team and we're really excited to see him come make our stylesheets even more awesome. The Sass 3.2 release is coming soon and the 0.13 release of compass will take advantage of the great features that it offers. Additionally, we're working on an extension registry where you can post your compass extensions and discover new ones. Lastly, we'll be extracting blueprint to a compass extension as that project seems to have stagnated. I'd say we're getting pretty close to a 1.0 release!