This week, the Numendo editorial team wanted to focus on the JavaScript tool Gulp. Is it really effective? Is it better than its competitor Webpack? The answer is in this article!
What tasks can you carry out with Gulp?
Gulp is a task runner built on Node.js: it makes it possible to run pieces of script in the developer’s place. It is therefore often used to avoid repetitive tasks, which saves time. So what can you do with Gulp?
You can:
- Compile SCSS/LESS files into CSS
- Minify and concatenate your JS/CSS files to reduce their weight
- Refresh your pages automatically
- Detect your JS errors
- Synchronise your pages across browsers on different devices (mobiles, tablets, desktop) in order to check the graphical rendering and the breakpoints in the interface
These are only the most popular features! Gulp offers more than 2,000 executable plugins for your web project. To install Gulp, you simply need to run a few npm (Node Package Manager) commands. You can follow the installation tutorial by clicking here.
Should you choose Webpack or Gulp for your project?
Even though Webpack is often compared to Gulp, it is not in fact a task runner but a module bundler. Its purpose is to generate static resources from application modules and dependencies.
You can perfectly well use both tools: using Gulp and Webpack together makes it possible to handle practically all of your project’s workflows. But what should you do if you have to choose only one?
Well, it all depends on what you expect from a tool: if you are looking for an intuitive tool, capable of defining and running your tasks easily, choose Gulp. If you are looking for a more complete tool, with flexible configuration options and a fast-growing community, choose Webpack.
In terms of popularity, Webpack has been growing strongly since 2015; the graph below shows interest in Gulp (in red) and in Webpack (in blue).
(source: Google Trends)
If you are interested in JavaScript, take a look at our other blog articles on the same subject. Do share this article on social networks if you enjoyed it.
