gulp

gulp (GitHub: gulpjs/gulp, License: MIT) is a streaming build and task runner system. It’s an alternative to the ever prelific grunt.js. There’s been quite a bit of buzz on the twitters.

npm install gulp

Example

This file is just a quick sample to give you a taste of what gulp does.

var gulp = require('gulp');
var uglify = require('gulp-uglify');
var imagemin = require('gulp-imagemin');

gulp.task('scripts', function() {
  // Minify and copy all JavaScript (except vendor scripts)
  return gulp.src(['client/js/**/*.js', '!client/js/vendor/**'])
    .pipe(uglify())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js'));
});

// Copy all static images
gulp.task('images', function() {
 return gulp.src('client/img/**')
    .pipe(imagemin())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/img'));
});

// The default task (called when you run `gulp`)
gulp.task('default', function() {
  gulp.run('scripts', 'images');

  // Watch files and run tasks if they change
  gulp.watch('client/js/**', function() {
    gulp.run('scripts');
  });

  gulp.watch('client/img/**', function() {
    gulp.run('images');
  });
});

Opinion

There’s always a lot of excitement when a new thing comes out that promises to be better than the current thing. It seems to be especially true when the current thing is already pretty solid and just works. What gets to people are the edge cases and they feel annoyed and frustrated easily forgetting how smoothly the rest of the system works.

Nicolas Bevacqua has written a very interesting article on the subject. My favorite quote:

Make a choice by yourself, don’t just pick something because XYZ said so. Pick the tool which works for you. The one you understand, are comfortable with. Above all, the one that fits your needs. Don’t go blindly chasing the latest fad because someone else tells you to. Similarly, don’t get stuck with monolithic jQuery applications (just to give out an example), try something else. Innovate. Be the change you want to see in the world.