Can you please share your experience theming EXT 4 components with SASS and Compass and IE support.
A little Background: I got SASS and COMPASS working on my box. Edited couple of scss files and turned on Compass -watch to see css files generate dynamically. But before I dive too much into it, I want to make sure that using SASS & COMPASS is a complete solution and I don't have to write separate CSS and create separate images/sprites for IE. I have to support IE7 and up.
I have used Compass and SASS fairly extensively.
The core that you need to understand: IE isn't even part of the picture. SASS and Compass are back-end solutions. Server side. The SASS/SCSS is compiled in to standard CSS that is delivered to the browser. The browser doesn't even know that there is a SASS/Compass solution under the hood. Which means that standard IE CSS caveats apply, due to how poor of a browser it is, but it has nothing to do with Compass/SASS.
Further, I've found that there really aren't really any drawbacks to SASS, other than the slight learning curve. SASS makes life better. It is indeed "the total package" as you phrase it. Because the code you end up writing is easier to deal with, and easier to understand. Which all translates in to an easier-to-maintain stack.