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TodoTasks

TodoMVC for task runners. Not sure which task runner to use? Take a look at some reference implementations.

This repository is a base project for testing build tools in the cloverfield project, based on the TodoMVC backbone example.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/ericelliott/todotasks.git
cp -r todotasks/implementations/base todotasks/implementations/<your-build-process-name>
cd todotasks/implementations/<your-build-process-name>
npm install

What's included

This repository should be all setup, ready for your build tool to compile:

  • .eslintrc contains the rules required for ESlint to pass
  • Upon npm install, all the bower components will automatically be installed also
  • No assumptions have been made about which build tool you are planning to use

Motivation

Cloverfield aims to create a next generation JavaScript project boilerplate. That means we'll use the tools that coders in-the-know will be using over the next 1 - 3 years. We're starting with the 2016 edition. Read more.

The JS community has been splintering when it comes to task runner consensus. For a while, Grunt was the clear winner, but that isn't the case anymore. We need to make a decision on one of these options, because many of our generators are going to produce some sort of task runner config. Please do some research and weigh in by answering the questions below.

Gulp and Brocolli have entered the community radar, and there is a growing trend to lean more heavily on Unix pipes instead of Node streams or the heavy file i/o typical of Grunt setups.

And the long-time reigning champion that's been a part of Unix since the time of the ancient grey beards is starting to make inroads. See Building JavaScript Projects with Make.

Oh, and npm has a built-in task runner that lets you easily leverage Unix pipes. Substack thinks that's the way to go, and he's not alone.

This is a pretty confusing landscape for those who haven't investigated all of these possible solutions, so lets try to lay out the pros and cons of each.

- Choosing a Task Runner for the Cloverfield Boilerplate Scaffold

The challenge

Let's clarify what our typical build system is trying to achieve:

  • Simple dev command that watches files for changes, then rebuilds only what needs to be rebuilt
  • Build CSS system
  • Lint on build and display results in that dev command console output
  • Run unit tests on change
  • Full build command that kicks off cross-platform testing (e.g. Sauce Labs cloud testing)

What we really need is TodoMVC for build systems

Let's actually set up builds using the top contenders. Let's pick the Backbone TodoMVC source (we're not actually building an app here, this is an arbitrary, meaningless selection, no bikeshedding) and whip up the contenders.

If you care about build system x, write a TodoMVC build with x and link to it here.

To make the timing meaningful, we should try to use all the same tech in all the contender build systems. These are arbitrary tech selections -- these do not reflect the tech we'll promote in Cloverfield. No bikeshedding about this stuff here, please. =)

  • ESLint with these rules (change the rules if it doesn't pass, not the JavaScript source.)
  • Concat JS and compress with Uglify
  • Run the CSS through node-sass
  • Run a couple tests with tape

Since we're JavaScript guys, we can kick off the build process and time the results using JavaScript. We can worry about the exact timing code when we have a couple builds to compare.

Criteria for judging:

  • Build times with an emphasis on repeat builds - the longer it takes to build during the dev process, the less productive developers are
  • Ease of use after the build system has been set up - this includes simple maintenance of the build config, e.g., how hard is it to add a task?

Note also, this isn't a spec race. We're all going to weigh in with our opinions, which are informed by the somewhat-objective results.

The fastest build is not an automatic winner, but it will help if we have some data backing our opinions up.

Let's get building. =)

- ericelliott