What is the difference between gem bootstrap-sass and gem twitter-bootstrap-rails [closed]

Question

I am working to hopefully one day be able to build a rails app from memory. I am following Hartl's book and today decided to experiment with a quickie from Rails casts because it looked simple to do. They both involve the twitter boostrap. Here's where I need help

gem bootstrap-sass worked fine per Hartl's tutorial
gem twitter-bootstrap-rails per the RailsCasts tutorial did not work as I have to install Python, etc.

So, as a complete noob to programming and web dev, I wanted to know what is the difference between the two if they are both reliant on the Twitter Bootstrap product?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The first one is a translation of bootstrap less files to sass files. To integrate it you have to copy those files to your project. To update it you have to copy new version of those files again.

Second uses less and it is a gem that provides some additional functionality like generators. Integration is done through bundler and further updates also.

I prefer first solution. It's easier to keep control. It's also less magical so integration is simpler and less bug aware.

Here is a nice comparison and explanation of available bootstrap solutions for rails.