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Gulp.js: The streaming build system

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Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#22
post #18

I recently switched to using gulp and webpack (to build react.js) after having used grunt for many years and I would encourage anyone still using grunt to make the switch. All that pain and suffering to get your grunt build to work will not be a problem. Setting up gulp is painless. It just worked. My setup is less, jshint, wepback with react.js and bootstrap. I encourage people to use webpack for any kind of js buil…

I think this is a perfect example of why in 2014 Javascript is harder than ever for someone to learn. I'd love to get your take as someone who seems to be using the latest cool stuff as to how to mitigate that? I personally learned JS circa 2006 in the jQuery era and now I'm in a position where web-minded individuals ask me how to learn JS but they are "10 steps ahead" asking questions like react vs ember, ember vs a…

You can skip. I get that front end stuff can be intimidating. My recommendation is to learn the basics and when it comes to libraries fight the intimidation and take a few minutes to try out new technology when you encounter it. If you find it too hard in those few minutes of actually trying it, don't use it. You can still use script tags if you want. Your site will run just fine. Do what feels comfortable. These tools are supposed to make your life easier, not harder.

Having said that grunt is very bad because it is intimidating even for seasoned front-end programmers, it probably scared a lot of new developers away from even looking at front-end build systems. That's probably a good reason why it should fall off the radar. Thankfully gulp is much easier and I bet if you try it you will find it useful. If you don't, that's OK.

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#23

I credit gulp with finally making me 'get' streams, even though I had tangled with them before. It's API is one of the [1] biggest inspirations to code I write nowadays and it also helped me come to grips with the fact that code > config in almost every eventuality. All of that said, webpack is so very far ahead of everything else in the field that there is almost no way I would use anything else. It also has the sid…

I had the same experience. Gulp is simple and beautiful once you get it. And it's so much faster than Grunt.

Alas, at this point, my build needs are also being handled by Webpack. And, if I'm faced with something weird, I'd first try to solve it with a Webpack plugin. It's nowhere near as pretty as Gulp but it's the simplest to configure and most comprehensive.

It's been a tumultuous few years for JS build systems...

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#24
post #18

I recently switched to using gulp and webpack (to build react.js) after having used grunt for many years and I would encourage anyone still using grunt to make the switch. All that pain and suffering to get your grunt build to work will not be a problem. Setting up gulp is painless. It just worked. My setup is less, jshint, wepback with react.js and bootstrap. I encourage people to use webpack for any kind of js buil…

I think this is a perfect example of why in 2014 Javascript is harder than ever for someone to learn. I'd love to get your take as someone who seems to be using the latest cool stuff as to how to mitigate that? I personally learned JS circa 2006 in the jQuery era and now I'm in a position where web-minded individuals ask me how to learn JS but they are "10 steps ahead" asking questions like react vs ember, ember vs a…

Personally, for the time being I skip all the build tools and just dump JS files in a folder manually. Maybe once I am up to scratch with all the other JS stuff, I'll take a look at the build tools again.

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#27

I recently switched to using gulp and webpack (to build react.js) after having used grunt for many years and I would encourage anyone still using grunt to make the switch. All that pain and suffering to get your grunt build to work will not be a problem. Setting up gulp is painless. It just worked. My setup is less, jshint, wepback with react.js and bootstrap. I encourage people to use webpack for any kind of js buil…

You've been using grunt wrong. It's a task runner, not an asset builder.

I use Grunt to run Broccoli and tests. Broccoli is the best asset tool right now. Trees are so much better than streams or anything else. I even made some Sweet.js macros for making Broccoli files look super neat: https://github.com/myfreeweb/sweetbuild

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#28

I recently switched to using gulp and webpack (to build react.js) after having used grunt for many years and I would encourage anyone still using grunt to make the switch. All that pain and suffering to get your grunt build to work will not be a problem. Setting up gulp is painless. It just worked. My setup is less, jshint, wepback with react.js and bootstrap. I encourage people to use webpack for any kind of js buil…

I have been using Browserify for about 8 months on all my personal and work projects and have really liked it. Since it seems like you have used both what are your thoughts on Webpack and Browserify? I have never used Webpack (and now very little about it), but was wondering if it is worth investigating it?

+1 on the request for experiences of people who've played with Webpack and Browserify.

Sooo many options, so little time.

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#29
post #2

I've been using Gulp for a couple of months now, it's great! It's like Grunt, but faster, and the tasks are written in code, not a giant JSON config file.

Even though they are clearly related, Gulp and Grunt are fulfilling different purposes. You should carefully examined your needs before choosing one over another. I recently switched to Gulp for several projects, and I'm thinking of switching back to Grunt. Gulp lacks of some important features. For instance, it does not allow to sequentially execute tasks: everything is done in parallel. This could for sure be emula…

We're adding the ability to handle sequential tasks (and other cool combinations) in Gulp 4. See bach[1] for some ideas.

[1]: https://github.com/phated/bach

Re: Gulp.js: The streaming build system

#30
post #2

I've been using Gulp for a couple of months now, it's great! It's like Grunt, but faster, and the tasks are written in code, not a giant JSON config file.

Even though they are clearly related, Gulp and Grunt are fulfilling different purposes. You should carefully examined your needs before choosing one over another. I recently switched to Gulp for several projects, and I'm thinking of switching back to Grunt. Gulp lacks of some important features. For instance, it does not allow to sequentially execute tasks: everything is done in parallel. This could for sure be emula…

"For instance, it does not allow to sequentially execute tasks: everything is done in parallel."

This is false. You can set perquisites for a task, which will be executed in sequence.

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