![]() Most articles you’ll find online compare the benefits of one tool against another. How should you choose since there’s so much conflicting advice out there? ![]() You’ll also find articles on using Brunch or npm as your build tool instead of Grunt or Gulp. You can find many different articles comparing the two of them like this, this and this. The two major competitors for CLI tools are Grunt and Gulp. You may have to spend a few hours understanding how a workflow fits together and how you can code it up. The only drawback to CLI tools is that they’re far more complex to configure. If you want control over your build processes and don’t want to get stuck with any software, then CLI tools are definitely going to be for you. You can use tools like browserify, which allow you to require modules in the browser like how you would with Node.JS, and HTML templating tools like Handlebars and Swig (Note: Swig is no longer maintained). You can also harness the power of many tools out there that aren’t supported by GUI tools. They allow you to set up workflows that are far more advanced compared to what GUI tools can offer. Why CLI tools?ĬLI tools are much more powerful and flexible when compared to GUI tools. If you find that you need the extra flexibility, you might want to check out CLI tools instead. One major concern you may have with GUI tools is they may not be updated as quickly as you want them to be. For example, Codekit allows you to use Bower while Prepros allows you to deploy through FTP. In addition, GUI tools can also help you test JavaScript code for errors with tools like JShint and also optimize all your assets for production.Īside from the common tasks mentioned above, different tools have different functions. They help you do things like compiling Sass to CSS, and refreshing the browser when you save a file, which speeds up your development process tremendously. ![]() GUI tools help you automate your workflow without any complex code configuration, and they’re ideal if you’re just getting your feet wet with web development. So, should you choose GUI tools over CLI tools or vice versa? Let’s take a look. You can only use these tools by writing code or configurations, and you’ll need to use the command line. The second kind of build tools are CLI tools like Grunt, Gulp, Brunch and even npm. First, we have GUI tools like Codekit and Prepros, that provide a graphical interface for you to choose from various options. There are two different kinds of build tools you can choose from. The 4 parts that can be automated by a build tool are: They can potentially help to automate up to four of the six different parts of a development process. What are build tools and why should you use them?īuild tools are tools that help you automate your development processes. But are these the only two you should choose from? If not, what other choices do you have? When it comes to build tools, the two most popular options right now are Grunt and Gulp. Regardless of what you’re choosing, be it a code editor, a framework, or even a build tool. I hope it can help you because in a lot of cases I can’t recommend this handy app enough.Choosing to use one tool over another is one of the largest challenges developers face. I was surprised that I could do this kind of task with Prepros. Here we also set the config file’s origin.Īs you see, you can turn on and off the command with the checkbox before the command field or in the related sidebar. You see why we need the placeholders here otherwise, our command won’t know where to find our file and output root. Using placeholders, we can customize our commands with replaceable sections that are needed for any command. The only info that you can find on the official documentation page is about the placeholders. Unfortunately, the custom command documentation isn’t the best, but if you are familiar with your command prompt and npm, you will get it. ![]() It is like a plus layer that runs in your build stream, like a hook. What is a Custom Command?Ī custom command is your own tool, which isn’t supported by Prepos, but you still want to run it (anything you can run in your command line). Although I’ve been using it for a while, I still find new (for me) functionality like the custom tools that help us to run custom commands (like an npm command). Need a WordPress website? Or you prefer the more performant headless and static solutions? We can help!Ī useful newer feature is JS bundling and npm handling.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |