Build Wars: Gulp vs. Grunt

markdalgleish.github.io

15 points·caffeinewriter··5 comments

I'm not a fan of presentations where every other slide is an animated gif. I think it detracts from the presentation.

Also, this might be an old slide. The spec this was referring to appears to be dead: https://github.com/node-task/spec/wiki

It does however spell out the right conclusion: a) it doesn't have to be a replacement and b) configuration vs code.

Btw there's also brunch (http://brunch.io) that you might want to check out. That one really does need only minimal configuration.

I wrote an article about all three not too long ago: http://blog.toggl.com/2014/03/grunt-vs-gulp-vs-brunch/

For some reason, when I try to load the page, all the slides flash past, and I'm left with just the image of the author at the end.

Edit: On Mac Chrome 37.0.2062.124, for what that's worth.

I find any build automation tool to be a hassle. Tools like Gulp and Grunt remind me strongly of Visual Studio and C++, something I hope not to have to see on my screen.

I find using system calls to be much easier. Node.js has a really powerful API that most people seem not to want to use, rather then want someone to write a plugin to do their tasks for them. I understand being lazy is good in programming but build plugin is just overengineering in my limited experience.

The thing with Gulp is that it can just be a simple wrapper to your node system calls. I use it just as a task runner to lessc files together, or run a browserify script, etc. It also really takes some pain away from piping data to different handlers.

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