Sigh, these sorts of things always force you to change how you develop and don't really work for mobile web dev. This wheel seems to been re-invented far too often.<p>Alternatively:<p><pre><code> sudo pip install watchdog
watchmedo shell-command -w -c "make" -i '*/.*' -R
</code></pre>
Where "make" is either for a makefile or some other build script.<p>And then just put live.js (from <a href="http://livejs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://livejs.com/</a>) as a script inside your pages.<p>This works anywhere with basically any stack (i.e. if you had some strange alien CSS preprocessor as long as it can be processed with a command you can use this), integrates into your normal build system and requires no browser plugins or proprietary binaries.
I have a mac, but prefer to use just Guard and the browser extensions. Fortunately, that info is still available:<p><a href="https://github.com/mockko/livereload" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mockko/livereload</a><p>After all the time that's been put into the free version by others I wish livereload.com would have a prominent link to it. But I'm glad that the gem, which I don't use because <a href="https://github.com/guard/guard-livereload" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/guard/guard-livereload</a> is easier to install, and the browser extensions are available under the MIT license.
Another alternative is <a href="https://github.com/mape/node-hotcode" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mape/node-hotcode</a><p>Has page reload and doesn't require any project specific settings.<p>It is open source and works (web app using an iframe + path to watch) without altering development habits.
I don't get it... how freaking hard can it be to hit F5?<p>I'm not trying to be snarky - I'm just genuinely surprised that no one has posted that they consider the need for "live refresh" to be wholly unnecessary.<p>I come from a background in C++ development where compile times range anywhere from a minute to a day, so I'm truly thankful for "instant compilation" of CSS and HTML via a single click of a keyboard button..... but I wouldn't ever dream that my need to hit the F5 key was hindering my development ability!
The technology that drives this is undoubtedly very interesting, but what does this truly offer? What would be the practical application of this?<p>Are there droves of people who could benefit from constantly changing css?<p>Perhaps I'm just missing something rather obvious. If so, please help me.
Could just use Google Chrome and test your changes with this file:<p>C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User StyleSheets\Custom.css<p>Every time it is saved the changes are reflected on all open webpages instantly.
Epiphany (web browser bundled with the Gnome desktop environment) has supported a reduced version of this functionality for a number of years now. It's fairly easy to implement with the dnotify functionality of the Linux kernel.
I have good luck with using Chrome's CSS editor, then right clicking and hitting "Save As". You can keep working without reloading, and periodically save your changes back.