Can you use Bootstrap for a project without permanently modifying it? All my previous attempts I ended up gutting and heavily modifying Bootstrap, making me stuck on whatever version I started with. Is there a good solution to this?
That's the approach I took for my latest project, and was able to upgrade from 3.0.1 to 3.0.3 this morning with very few headaches.
You're better off actually creating a new stylesheet (or sheets) and importing only the Bootstrap LESS files you want. As long as your file is last in the import list, anything you override (variables) will take precedence. This will also make your upgrade path smoother, as the upgrade won't overwrite any of your mods.
i.e.
@import "bower_components/bootstrap/less/variables.less"; @import "bower_components/bootstrap/less/mixins.less";
// Rest of Bootstrap here
@import "myappstylesheet.less";