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  4. Code Review
  5. Checkstyle vs Stylelint

Checkstyle vs Stylelint

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Checkstyle
Checkstyle
Stacks132
Followers107
Votes0
GitHub Stars8.7K
Forks3.9K
Stylelint
Stylelint
Stacks1.6K
Followers100
Votes6
GitHub Stars11.4K
Forks986

Checkstyle vs Stylelint: What are the differences?

  1. Key difference 1: Configuration language - Checkstyle uses an XML configuration file to define its rules and checkstyle checks, whereas Stylelint uses a JavaScript configuration file. This difference in configuration languages allows developers to leverage their existing knowledge and expertise in those specific languages while setting up and configuring the tools.

  2. Key difference 2: Supported languages - Checkstyle primarily focuses on checking Java code, ensuring adherence to coding conventions and style guidelines. On the other hand, Stylelint is specifically designed for checking the stylesheets written in CSS and preprocessors like Sass and Less. This distinction in supported languages makes Checkstyle more suitable for Java-based projects, while Stylelint is more suitable for frontend development.

  3. Key difference 3: Rule sets and checks - Checkstyle provides a comprehensive set of predefined rules and checks that cover a wide range of coding conventions, such as naming conventions, indentation, and import-ordering. Stylelint also offers a significant number of default rules and checks but focuses more on CSS-specific conventions, such as selector specificity, vendor prefixes, and unused styles. This difference highlights the tool's specialization and the specific conventions each tool aims to enforce.

  4. Key difference 4: Integration with development tools - Checkstyle integrates well with popular Java development environments like Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA, providing seamless integration and reporting capabilities within the IDE itself. On the other hand, Stylelint integrates more naturally with frontend development workflows, especially with build tools like webpack and task runners like Gulp or Grunt. This difference makes Checkstyle more suitable for Java developers, while Stylelint caters to frontend developers.

  5. Key difference 5: Community support and extensions - Checkstyle has a vibrant and active community that contributes to its development and provides support through forums, wikis, and plugins. Stylelint also has an active community but focuses more on the frontend development community, with an array of plugins and integrations within the CSS ecosystem. These differences indicate the tools' respective communities and the additional customization and extensibility options available.

  6. Key difference 6: Configurability and customization - Checkstyle offers extensive configurability options, allowing developers to fine-tune rules and check configurations to suit their project's specific requirements. Stylelint also provides various customization options, such as enabling or disabling specific rules, specifying exceptions, and extending rules with plugins. This difference highlights the flexibility each tool offers in adapting to different project scenarios and requirements.

In summary, Checkstyle and Stylelint differ in terms of their configuration languages, supported languages, rule sets and checks, integration with development tools, community support, and configurability/customization options. These differences make each tool more suitable for specific development contexts and emphasize their individual areas of expertise.

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Advice on Checkstyle , Stylelint

Carlos
Carlos

Mar 14, 2020

Needs adviceonPrettierPrettierESLintESLintgulpgulp

Scenario: I want to integrate Prettier in our code base which is currently using ESLint (for .js and .scss both). The project is using gulp.

It doesn't feel quite right to me to use ESLint, I wonder if it would be better to use Stylelint or Sass Lint instead.

I completed integrating ESLint + Prettier, Planning to do the same with [ Stylelint || Sasslint || EsLint] + Prettier.

And have gulp 'fix' on file save (Watcher).

Any recommendation is appreciated.

465k views465k
Comments
Budi
Budi

Programmer

Aug 19, 2020

Review

I think you scan skip MongoDB for now and focussing on creating web component with Reactjs or Vue, I would also recommend to use TypeScript for type hinting support.

For styling, learn CSS first then upgrade to SASS/SCSS or LESS (pick one as mostly same concept) to make CSS more maintainable.

Also to improve your skill on both sectors, install linters if available. For TypeScipt, there are TSLint and for styling, i think there are Stylint. Linter will help you adapt to make a clean code and understand how other peoples usually styled their code.

41.6k views41.6k
Comments
Alex
Alex

Software Engineer

Aug 7, 2020

Review

you don't actually have to choose between these tools as they have vastly different purposes. i think its more a matter of understanding how to use them.

while eslint and stylelint are used to notify you about code quality issues, to guide you to write better code, prettier automatically handles code formatting (without notifying me). nothing else.

prettier and eslint both officially discourage using the eslint-plugin-prettier way, as these tools actually do very different things. autofixing with linters on watch isnt a great idea either. auto-fixing should only be done intentionally. you're not alone though, as a lot of devs set this up wrong.

i encourage you to think about what problem you're trying to solve and configure accordingly.

for my teams i set it up like this:

  • eslint, stylelint, prettier locally installed for cli use and ide support
  • eslint config prettier (code formatting rules are not eslints business, so dont warn me about it)
  • vscode workspace config: format on save
  • separate npm scripts for linting, and formatting
  • precommit hooks (husky)

so you can easily integrate with gulp. its just js after all ;)

159k views159k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Checkstyle
Checkstyle
Stylelint
Stylelint

It is a development tool to help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard. It automates the process of checking Java code to spare humans of this boring (but important) task. This makes it ideal for projects that want to enforce a coding standard.

A mighty, modern CSS linter that helps you enforce consistent conventions and avoid errors in your stylesheets.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
8.7K
GitHub Stars
11.4K
GitHub Forks
3.9K
GitHub Forks
986
Stacks
132
Stacks
1.6K
Followers
107
Followers
100
Votes
0
Votes
6
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet
Pros
  • 5
    Great way to lint your CSS or SCSS
  • 1
    Only complains about real problems
Integrations
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA
Java
Java
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Checkstyle , Stylelint?

Code Climate

Code Climate

After each Git push, Code Climate analyzes your code for complexity, duplication, and common smells to determine changes in quality and surface technical debt hotspots.

Codacy

Codacy

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality on every commit and pull request on more than 40 programming languages reporting back the impact of every commit or PR, issues concerning code style, best practices and security.

Phabricator

Phabricator

Phabricator is a collection of open source web applications that help software companies build better software.

PullReview

PullReview

PullReview helps Ruby and Rails developers to develop new features cleanly, on-time, and with confidence by automatically reviewing their code.

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit is a self-hosted pre-commit code review tool. It serves as a Git hosting server with option to comment incoming changes. It is highly configurable and extensible with default guarding policies, webhooks, project access control and more.

SonarQube

SonarQube

SonarQube provides an overview of the overall health of your source code and even more importantly, it highlights issues found on new code. With a Quality Gate set on your project, you will simply fix the Leak and start mechanically improving.

RuboCop

RuboCop

RuboCop is a Ruby static code analyzer. Out of the box it will enforce many of the guidelines outlined in the community Ruby Style Guide.

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io automatically and continuously tracks code quality with every GitHub or BitBucket commit and pull request, helping software developers save time in code reviews and efficiently tackle technical debt.

ESLint

ESLint

A pluggable and configurable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript. Maintain your code quality with ease.

Amazon CodeGuru

Amazon CodeGuru

It is a machine learning service for automated code reviews and application performance recommendations. It helps you find the most expensive lines of code that hurt application performance and keep you up all night troubleshooting, then gives you specific recommendations to fix or improve your code.

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