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Comment by michaelmior | Hacker News Reader

> When you use npm scripts, you don’t search for a Grunt or Gulp plugin. You choose from over 227,000 npm packages.

This statement is sensationalist and I don't think it presents a useful argument. Sure I could write a script that uses one of those packages but that has nothing to do with whether or not any of those packages actually helps me achieve my goal.

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Completely agree. Comparing these numbers doesn't make sense; of course npm has more modules, but why would I care about having e.g. node's express framework available to my build tool/task runner?

You're right. You wouldn't care about everything in npm. The point is this: When using Gulp/Grunt, we have to search for a plugin. This greatly limits our selection.

I see your point, it makes sense. But I have to note that in gulp (at least) you aren't restricted to plug-ins. You can use "generic" npm packages, as long as they output a stream (e.g. browserify).

It's definitely hyperbole, but the point still stands. Back when I used Gulp, I've run into quite a few situations where a particular package I wanted to use didn't support Gulp, but did have CLI support. And even if both were supported, adding a line to package.json was faster and simpler than using the gulp approach.

That said, I have nothing against Gulp and it's quite possible I might use it in the future. For example, the approach of using npm scripts can be problematic if you need to work on different operating systems. And I'm sure there are plenty of cases where the complexity is best managed with Gulp or its ilk.

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