What is the best alternative to JSHint?

Question

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score 91 · Answer 1

Gulp

Top Pro

Allows creating task dependencies

Any task can be set to have other tasks as dependencies. The dependencies are specified through piping streams, and tasks run concurrently if they do not block in dependencies. See More

Top Con

You need to know some limitations that are not very intuitive

There are some features in Gulp which may not be very intuitive, or that otherwise should have been the default features instead of having to implement them through arguments. For example, to keep the correct folder structure when you are copying a file, you have to add {base: "lib/"} as an argument. See More

Top Pro

Streaming build system makes it easier to apply code transformations

In gulp, it's easy to pipe multiple steps together which you commonly need with build systems. For example, you may need to compile the javascript source files, then package them together, and then minify it. The streaming system makes this much easier. Additionally, it improves performance since all operations are done in memory (compared to I/O operations) and avoids the need of unnecessarily compiling files (compared to Grunt that has to compile all files even if just one has changed). See More

Top Con

Rapidly changing API

While it's good that the gulp maintainers want the api to be as good as possible, it comes at the expense of stability. The upcoming gulp 4.0 release has another update to the way dependency management works which will require everyone to update their build scripts. It also makes it hard to look up information on best practices as the best practices keep changing, making a lot of the blog posts and questions about gulp out of date. See More

Top Pro

Large plugin ecosystem

Currently gulp offers a selection of 1000+ plugins and it is growing rapidly. See More

Top Con

No incremental building

Top Pro

Focuses on code instead of configuration

This depends on your style, but gulp is closer to the code, the actual execution isn't hidden by multiple layers and it's much easier to customize the build system without writing bloated modules. This also brings rather small configuration files. See More

Top Con

Not suited for big and complex apps.

Writing gulpfile for complex app which consists of many source types is very cumbersome and flawy process. You'll know when you want to move to webpack. See More

Top Pro

Chaining API that's simple and elegant

In Gulp, the transforms are performed through chains which makes it easier to understand the order of operations, and easier to modify it. See More

Top Pro

Concurrency allows for high-speed perfomance

Because streams in Gulp use pipes to establish dependency order, they are parallel by default without having to rely on plugins or hacks. See More

Top Pro

Minimizes disk operations for improved performance

Because Gulp is built using streams, it can store intermediate transformations in memory and defer writing to disk until the very end. This improves performance by not requiring expensive blocking disk operations for task dependencies. See More

Top Pro

The configuration file is easily readable

Gulp's configuration file is actually very readable because it's actual JavaScript instead of a large file of JSON objects. The entry barrier is very low for developers who have never used a task runner before and it's API is very simple, with only 4 methods. See More

Top Pro

Gulp modules are usable without Gulp

Because Gulp is built on top of the streaming API, you don't actually need gulp to use them. This could be helpful if you want to re-use those modules outside of gulp, possibly for testing, and using the same modules would be more consistent. See More

Top Pro

Gulp tasks run from terminal

Top Pro

It is possible to use projects that use streams without plugins

Since Gulp just uses streams at its core, you don't actually need a plugin wrapper to use a project that uses streams. If you use this approach, the you don't even have to worry about plugin maintenance at all, and get the bleeding edge updates as soon as they come out even if the plugin hasn't been updated. It also means if a project happens to not have a plugin, you don't need to write a new one, you can just use it as is. See More

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91 9

score 84 · Answer 2

Webpack

Top Pro

Rich and flexible plugin infrastructure

Plugins and loaders are easy to write and allow you to control each step of the build, from loading and compiling CoffeeScript, LESS and JADE files to smart post processing and asset manifest building. See More

Top Con

Config file may be hard to understand

Due to a somewhat hard to grasp syntax, configuring Webpack may take some time. See More

Top Pro

Tap into npm's huge module ecosystem

Using Webpack opens you up to npm, that has over 80k modules of which a great amount work both client-side and server-side. And the list is growing rapidly. See More

Top Con

Can not load files discovered during runtime

Top Pro

Can create a single bundle or multiple chunks loaded on demand, to reduce initial loading time

Webpack allows you to split your codebase into multiple chunks. Chunks are loaded on demand. This reduces the initial loading time. See More

Top Pro

ES6 module support

Webpack supports ES6 modules and their import and export methods without having to compile them to CommonJS require See More

Top Pro

Supports source maps for easier debugging

Source maps allow for easier debugging, because they allow you to find the problems within the origin files instead of the output file. See More

Top Pro

Share the same modules client-side and server-side

Because Webpack allows you to use the same require() function as node.js, you can easily share modules between the client-side and server-side. See More

Top Pro

Bundles CommonJs and AMD modules (even combined)

Webpack supports AMD and CommonJS module styles. It performs clever static analysis on the AST of your code. It even has an evaluation engine to evaluate simple expressions. This allows you to support most existing libraries. See More

Top Pro

Mix ES6 AMD and CommonJS

Webpack supports using all three module types, even in the same file. See More

Top Pro

Limit plugin integration issues

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84 16

score 16 · Answer 3

JSLint

Top Con

Highly opinionated

JSLint has a very strict, dogmatic ruleset that cannot be changed or warnings turned off. So much so that rarely any code will pass JSLint tests. It's reasonable to evaluate if all warning are worth changing. See More

Top Pro

Enforces a very high standard

Since it's relatively old (it was made in 2002) and made by Douglas Crockford, considered a JavaScript God by many JavaScript programmers. It was created to enforce what in Crockford's experience are the good parts of JavaScript. This means that it's considered by many the best way to enforce the highest standards in JavaScript. See More

Top Con

No way to support ESnext

Top Pro

No setup required

JSLint comes preconfigured and ready to be used. See More

Top Con

Difficult to know which rule is causing which error

Since you can't edit the rules and it's not programmed in a way to display the rule that's being broken, it's difficult to understand which rule has been broken. See More

16 7

score 58 · Answer 4

Emmet

Top Pro

Makes writing HTML really fast

Either watch the video below or read this article to see all the things you can do with Emmet. See More

Top Con

Requires pyv8

Emmet is a Javascript addon, and it requires pyv8 (python-javascript bridge) to run. See More

Top Pro

Makes writing CSS really fast

Emmet does not only work with HTML, but also CSS. See More

58 1

score 42 · Answer 5

ESLint

Top Pro

Highly flexible ruleset

ESLint allows customizing rules for errors, best practices, variable declarations, ES6, style and JS running on Node. Additionally, custom rules can be applied. See More

Top Con

Requires some configuration before use

Some options and rules need to be configured before using it. This is done by using JavaScript comments inside the file itself, or through a configuration file which can be either a YAML or a JSON file. See More

Top Pro

Good ES6 support

Top Con

The documentation can be a hit or miss

ESLint's documentation is very detailed and helpful in some parts, while in others it gets a little confusing. For example, the rules list is easy to follow and is grouped into logical categories, while the configuration tutorials can get a little confusing. See More

Top Pro

Functionality can be extended with a wide variety of plugins

A wide variety of plugins are available on npm's repository. See More

Top Pro

JSX support

JSX extends JavaScript's syntax and makes code faster, safer and easier to write than using plain JavaScript. ESLint is actually the only tool of it's kind to support JSX. See More

Top Pro

Clear warnings and error messages

Warnings and error messages are detailed and easy to understand because of the usage of natural language throughout all warnings and messages. For each message, the rule name is given so you can know what rule is being broken. See More

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42 1

score 9 · Answer 6

Origami

Top Pro

Powerful animations and interactions

Origami was actually built to help Facebook designers work on Paper, one of Facebook's latest apps. Every animation that is coded into Origami was first made for Paper. It uses powerful 3D effects and some of the most advanced features for scrolling, tapping and swiping to create a faithful and interactive prototype. See More

Top Con

Mac only

Since Origami is not an app in and on itself, but a plugin for Quartz Composer, which is built by Apple. Therefore, Origami is only available for Mac and for a developer to download and use it, they need to register as an Apple Developer. See More

Top Pro

No code required

Origami is built by designers for designers. As such, it allows for quick prototyping without writing a single line of code. See More

Top Con

Mouse driven interactions

There's no way to directly test the tactile interface. See More

Top Pro

Completely free

Origami is offered to the public completely free, no monthly plans, no upfront cost whatsoever. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Origami is a toolkit for Quartz Composer, and unfortunately the learning curve for it is quite steep. Especially for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Origami is free and open source and it is hosted on GitHub. See More

Top Pro

Native testing

Developers can develop their prototypes with origami through their desktops, but the testing itself is done on the native devices. See More

Top Pro

Like only-Mac-integration! Great app! Thank you.

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9 0

score 28 · Answer 7

Sublimerge

Top Pro

Three-way diff allows easy merging of files

Top Con

It's NOT Open Source

You can't fix or, implement nothing. And when the developer abandons the project you will be left in the lurch. See More

Top Pro

Highlights intraline changes

Top Con

It's not free

Nither as free price nor as free in freedom. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for Git, Subversion and Mercurial commands

Sublimerge automatically integrates with your version control history, and lets you compare between revisions, branches, remotes, and the staging area. See More

Top Con

Cannot compare text within the same file

Sublimerge can only compare entire file diffs, but not two selections within a file. Comparing within files can be useful for example, by refactoring two similar functions to use a shared function. With Sublimerge, you need to copy the sections into two new temporary tabs and compare between the two. This can be cumbersome, as if you have another untitled file, you won't be able to know which one is which. See More

Top Pro

Can compare to clipboard contents

Top Con

No version control integration

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28 1

score 6 · Answer 8

FileDiffs

Top Pro

Allows you to open diffs in external diff tool

Instead of creating a new tab with the diff in it, you can tell FileDiffs to open the diff in an external diff tool for side by side comparison and other features. See More

Top Con

Doesn't have side by side comparison

After running FileDiffs, it creates a new diff file in a new tab, which doesn't have the benefit of showing the diffs in context. However, it is possible to open the diff in an external diff tool instead of creating a new tab. See More

Top Pro

Easily compare arbitrary code sections

FileDiffs allows you to compare any arbitrary text through multiple commands: Compare the current file or selection with any other file via a file select menu Compare the current file or selection file with previously selected tab or window or panel Compare the current file or selection with your clipboard Compare between two selections through Sublime Text's multi-select feature See More

Top Pro

Command pallet integration

In addition to providing shortcut commands for custom shortcuts, FileDiffs adds new command pallet entries. If you don't use diffs often enough to warrant memorizing a new shortcut command, the command pallet provides a quick and easy way to access the plugin. See More

6 0

score 81 · Answer 9

Mocha

Top Pro

Supports different assertion libraries

Mocha runs independently from the assertion library, so you can choose which assertion format works best for you. Mocha most often is run in combination with assertion library Chai. See More

Top Con

No atomic tests

Tests cannot be ran in random order. See More

Top Pro

Write tests with Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

Allows developers to choose their development process. Not only TDD but also BDD. See More

Top Con

Can be intimidating for beginners

While some testing frameworks are complete out of the box, Mocha requires developers to select and set up assertion libraries and mocking utilities. For someone who is just starting to learn how to build tests this can be scary as they will also have to choose which libraries to use and learn them too. See More

Top Pro

Makes Asynchronous testing extremely easy

No need to write tricky statements for Async testing. Mocha gives you a done callback. Place this done parameter in your callback function, that'll let Mocha know that you've written an asynchronous function. See More

Top Pro

Integrates really well with NodeJS

The Mocha test framework itself runs on NodeJS, hence it makes everything related to it extremely simple. With Mocha's simple syntax and speed, testing your node.js app just got a whole lot easier. See More

Top Pro

Runs in Node.js and the browser

Mocha has a browser build as well as a node command line program so you can test in client and server side environments. See More

Top Pro

Custom full color test reporters

Mocha has multiple test reporters built in and you can create your own as well. The test reporters have full color and makes it easy to see if your tests fail or not. See More

Top Pro

Easy to add support for Generators

Aside from the numerous benefits with generators in your application, You can now also integrate generators into your test suite. By using mocha, all you have to do is enable support for generators. See More

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81 3

score 42 · Answer 10

Yeoman

Top Pro

Active community

Yeoman has an active community with new generators being created at a rapid pace. Because of the momentum behind the community, you can expect good support and adoption for new tools and frameworks promptly after they come out. See More

Top Con

Combining Yeoman and backend frameworks can bring problems

Combining Yeoman and a backend framework such as Django, Rails or Laravel can create problem because the project structure of Yeoman may not be compatible with that of the backend project. It can be tuned to work but for small projects it can be relatively time consuming. See More

Top Pro

Huge number of generators for scaffolding your project

Yeoman generators allow you to quickly set up a new project. Invoked with the scaffolding tool 'yo' they provide a boilerplate & tooling selection. There are over 1000 generators, including generators for ember, angular & backbone, to choose from, the majority of which are community maintained. See More

Top Pro

Allows you to choose between different build systems

Yeoman supports both major build systems - Grunt and Gulp. These build systems will help you automate tasks such as minification & concatenation of files, running tests, deploying and live-updating your webpage among many others. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Yeoman is free, open source and licensed under BSD. See More

Top Pro

Support for the package manager of your choice

Yeoman supports both Bower and npm, and is flexible in regard to tools to allow it to work with a wider range of project requirements. See More

Top Pro

Standardized workflow process

Yeoman wants webapp development to be more standardized under the "Yeoman workflow" banner. As such it encourages the use of a specific combination of tools - a scaffolding tool (yo), a build tool (grunt, gulp, etc) and a package manager (bower, npm). See More

Top Pro

Generators can be composed with other generators

Yeoman's scaffolding system allows generators to rely on other generators allowing for better code reuse and standardization between generators that use a common sub-component. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

As a command line tool it works on OS X, Linux & Windows. See More

Top Pro

Works with the package manager directly

Yeoman doesn't just scaffold your project, but also helps you integrate with your package manager directly, so you can manage your entire project with it. See More

Top Pro

Developers can create their own plugins

Developers can also create their own Yeoman generator which are practically plugins with which Yeoman works. Generators are basically Node.js modules and can be created just like any other Node module. There is also a very detailed and useful guide on how to create a generator on the Yeoman official website. See More

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42 2

score 62 · Answer 11

SideBar Enhancements

Top Pro

Adds a ton of functionality to the sidebar

Move to trash Clipboard Open in browser Copy the content of a file as data:uri base64 Close, move, open and restore buffers affected by a rename/move command Copy as tags img/a/script/style Duplicate Preference to control if a buffer should be closed when affected by a deletion operation Allows to display "file modified date" and "file size" on statusbar See More

Top Con

Data Collection

SE ships your data off to Kite. See More

Top Con

ST2 version is not maintained anymore

The last ST2 version is available here. All future functionality will be added only to the ST3 version. See More

62 4

score 2 · Answer 12

sublimious

Top Pro

Pre-configured with layers

Whenever you need to work on a new language that you don't have plugins for yet, you can choose to check if sublimious has a layer for that language. If it does, all you need to do is activate it and sublimious will automatically download all plugins you need for that language, add keybindings for efficient usage and set the optimal settings for these plugins. See More

Top Pro

VIM centric

This plugin is perfect for VIM fanatics. It tries to add VIM keybindings to everything, even to where you didn't know it was possible like the sublime text overlay or the sidebar See More

Top Pro

Ergonomic shortcuts

sublimious adds shortcuts that actually make sense. "p f" for example searches files in the current project. "g s" executes "git status" and so on, you get the idea. It even comes with a helper that shows you what shortcuts are available. See More

2 0

score 43 · Answer 13

Terminal.app

Top Pro

Default terminal on Mac

Since it is already installed by default, you don't need to worry about finding and installing another terminal. See More

Top Con

Updates are released rarely

Terminal usually gets an update when any new MacOS version is released, which is every couple of years. See More

Top Pro

Great compatibility

Works with everything. See More

Top Con

Occasionally freezes

This application occasionally freezes. See More

Top Pro

Easily open man pages

By right clicking on a highlighted string you can easily search through the man pages for that string and the man page will open in a nice pop up window. See More

Top Con

Tab names are volatile

The tab names never stick -- it's imperative that this should work. See More

Top Pro

Excellent xterm emulation support

Top Con

No highlighting when searching

Doesn't highlight all search result instances. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful

Terminal has nice colors and font options. See More

Top Con

Home and End keys require shift being pressed

Top Con

Occasionally crashes

Working remotely with a full buffer may cause complete terminal app crash. See More

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43 10

score 39 · Answer 14

Bower

Top Pro

Manages non-JavaScript components

Bower is flexible enough that you can manage pretty much any package you would need on the front-end, so you can manage all your dependencies with one tool, including CSS, boilerplate, fonts and more. See More

Top Con

Does not store components in a registry

Bower installs components directly from urls and repositories, which makes it more susceptible to components being taken down, with fewer guarantees about their availability. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity provides more flexibility

Bower doesn't try to handle too much of the workflow process, which means it's more flexible, and can be incorporated into more workflows. It tries to just do package management well and nothing else, which is why so many workflow wrappers support it. Because it doesn't try to do too much vertical integration, it also means that the list of supported components that it manages is huge. See More

Top Con

Seems like a redundant package manger

NPM with Webpack/Browserify can handle all the dependencies for both back-end and front-end. The only place where Bower may be useful is for projects which use libraries not supported by NPM, such as Polymer. See More

Top Pro

Largest front-end specific package registry

Although npm is the largest javascript package manager, Bower is the most popular one built specifically for the front-end. With over 16000 components in its registry, pretty much every component you can think of is supported. See More

Top Con

Difficult to create bundles

To create a minified bundle of all the required JS dependencies other tools need to be used. For example a JavaScript task runner which will automatically concatenate JavaScript files and minify them will be needed. Although it's done automatically, it's still extra work because the task runner needs to be configured. See More

Top Pro

Easily integrates with other tools

Because of Bower's focus on simplicity, it makes it much easier to integrate with other tools, so it has a wide range of support with workflow wrappers and task managers such as yeoman and grunt. See More

Top Con

Deprecated

As of May 2017 Bower has been deprecated and will not receive any updates with new features. Bugs will still be fixed though for existing projects that use Bower. See More

Top Pro

Requires a flat dependency tree

While nested dependencies are better for backend modules that need lots of inter-dependency, they lead to bloated file sizes. Flat dependencies are better for frontend optimization, where file size needs to be more closely managed. See More

Top Con

Lack of signing of packages on the repository

Anyone can register their package on Bower's GIT registry - on one side, this brings a lot of ease to developers, but on the other hand, this can lead to security issues because the packages are not signed. See More

Top Pro

Does not store components in a registry

You always get package directly from owner's repository, i.e. you will always get latest version as soon as its version tag is committed without need of waiting until owner publishes updated package. See More

Top Con

Less packages than npm due to a smaller ecosystem

Bower: 36,000 packages Npm: 161,876 total packages (of course, many work only on the server) See More

Top Pro

Simpler to manage varied code

Because Bower makes few assumptions about the source and format of packages, it's easier to apply it to more of your packages See More

Top Pro

AMD & CJS compatible

Bower strives to be as simple of a package manager as possible and puts as few restrictions on the packages in the registry as possible, making it the most flexible package manager with the most potential packages. See More

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39 11

score 16 · Answer 15

Pretty JSON

Top Pro

Can prettify with configurable indent and optional key sorting

To prettify look for "Pretty JSON: Format (Pretty Print) JSON" via Command Pallette. Indent, key sorting and ASCII ensurance can all be configured. See More

Top Pro

Can minify

To compress/minify look for "Pretty JSON: Minify (compress) JSON" via Command Pallette. See More

Top Pro

Can convert JSON to XML

To convert JSON to XML look for "Pretty JSON: JSON 2 XML" via Command Pallette. See More

Top Pro

Can query

Query/filter requires ./jq and allows slicing, filtering, mapping and transforming data with ease. To query look for "Pretty JSON: jq query" via Command Pallette. See More

16 6

score 5 · Answer 16

JSCS

Top Con

No longer developed

Merged with ESLint https://medium.com/@markelog/jscs-end-of-the-line-bc9bf0b3fdb2 See More

Top Pro

Support for custom reporters

JSCS supports custom reporters, which are very helpful when you want to integrate JSCS with other tools that require a specific writing style. See More

Top Con

Only detects code style violations

JSCS is useful only for enforcing coding styles. As such it cannot detect potential bugs or issues in your code. See More

Top Pro

Several presets available

JSCS needs a configuration file and a preset to start linting your code. But it's not a problem since there are a lot of pre-made presets available in their website. jQuery style, and Google coding style for example are included. See More

5 2

score 239 · Answer 17

TypeScript

Top Pro

Optional static typing

Typescript has optional static typing with support for interfaces and generics, and intelligent type inference. It makes refactoring large codebases a breeze, and provides many more safeguards for creating stable code. See More

Top Con

No support for dead code elimination

Typescript compiler does not remove dead code from generated file(s), you have to use external tools to remove unused code after compilation. This is harder to achieve, because Typescript compiler eliminated all type information. See More

Top Pro

Strict superset of Javascript

Every existing Javascript program is already a valid TypeScript program giving it the best support for existing libraries, which is particularly useful if you need to integrate with an existing Javascript code base. See More

Top Con

Too similar to Javascript

Presents some advantages compared to Javascript, but because it is designed to be a superset of Javascript, it means all the bad parts of Javascript are still present. See More

Top Pro

Strong typed language

Lot of benefits of it, you can read this. See More

Top Con

Type checking not enforced by default

You have to use compiler flags to make sure it catches flaws like usage of implicit any, etc. See More

Top Pro

Polyfill for ES6 fat-arrow syntax

Typescript implements the fat arrow syntax, which always maintains the current context for this and is a shorter/more convenient syntax than traditional function definition. See More

Top Con

Type inference coverage is incomplete

The default type when declaring and using a variable is any. For example, the following should break but does not: function add(a:number) { return a + 1 } function addAB(a, b) {return add(a) + b} addAB("this should break but doesn't :(", 100) In order to avoid this, you have to declare type signatures for every variable or parameter or set the flag --noImplicityAny when running the compiler. See More

Top Pro

Clear roadmap

TypeScript has a clear and defined roadmap with rapid and constant releases. See More

Top Con

No support for conditional compilation

There is no clean way to have debug and release builds compiled from the same source, where the release version removes all debugging tools and outputs from the generated file(s). See More

Top Pro

First party Visual Studio support

As a Microsoft developed project, it has first party Visual Studio support that's on par with its C# support with features like syntax sensitive statement completion. See More

Top Con

Far less typed libraries than Dart (and TSD are never up to date).

Just compare https://pub.dartlang.org/packages and http://definitelytyped.org/tsd/ Typescript => 930 Dart => 2060 See More

Top Pro

Has a repository of high quality TypeScript type definitions for popular libraries

There are many ready to use and high quality TypeScript definitions for popular libraries including jquery, angular, bootstrap, d3, lodash and many-many more. See More

Top Con

Requires "this" for field access

Even in cases were there is no ambiguity, you still have to use "this.fieldName" instead of just "fieldName". See More

Top Pro

Great support for editors (Sublime, Code, Vim, IntelliJ...)

Top Con

Benefits don't exceed costs

It is rather unnecessarily complicated for experienced JavaScript developers. See More

Top Pro

Adds support for object-oriented programming

Typescript enables familiar object-oriented programming patterns: classes, inheritance, public/private methods and properties, et cetera. See More

Top Con

No Java-like package structure

If you prefer a Java-like approach of partitioning your code into different packages, the module system of typescript will confuse you. See More

Top Pro

Built and supported by Microsoft

Being built by Microsoft, TypeScript is much more likely than most other similar open-source projects to receive continued long-term support, good documentation, and a steady stream of development. See More

Top Con

Small community

Top Pro

Low number of logical errors brought in by built-in type annotations

TypeScript's built-in type signatures allow developers to fully document interfaces and make sure that they will be correctly compiled. Therefore, cutting down on logical errors. See More

Top Pro

Great support for React, integrated typed JSX parsing

Strongly typed react components, so UI "templating" automatically gains type safety. See More

Top Pro

Works well with existing Javascript code

Both can call Javascript code and be called by Javascript code. Making transitioning to the language very easy. See More

Top Pro

Works well with Angular 2

Angular 2 is built using TypeScript and applications built using it can make use of that (or not). See More

Top Pro

Compiles to very native looking code

Compiles to simple looking Javascript making it easy to understand what is happening and learn the language (if you already know Javascript). See More

Top Pro

Ability to do functional programming

Specs

Price:Free, Open source

Site:http://www.typescriptlang.org/

Current stable version:2.3

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239 94

score 27 · Answer 18

Grunt

Top Con

Large bloated configuration files

To configure Grunt, developers need to basically write large files and configure JSON objects. While it's very powerful, the sheer complexity of it's configuration file may be a large obstacle for newcomers and developers that have not used any automation tools before. This may push them to search for simpler alternatives. See More

Top Pro

Configurations are easy to write

Grunt emphasizes configuration over code. As such grunt configurations are easy to write. Writing them does not require knowledge of streams, promises, concurrency, or asynchronous tasks to set up. See More

Top Con

The need to track creation/movement of files

Debugging and augmenting grunt pipelines are much harder than other build systems that clearly show the pipelines in the code. Grunt works on files so you must track where each task puts files and try and intercept that in a task if you want to add something in the middle of a build pipeline. See More

Top Pro

Has tons of plugins

Grunt has been available for a long time and during this time it has garnered a large community of dedicated developers who have made more than 4000 grunt plugins available to be used. See More

Top Con

Grunt compatibility issues

Changes in different versions in grunt are not always backwards-compatible. See More

Top Pro

Plugins configured out of the box

The default behaviors for most plugins is normally what you want, so if you just use a plugin without configuring it, it will work for most use cases. See More

Top Pro

A GUI front-end via spock

A graphical user interface for grunt is available via spock. See More

Top Pro

Choice of using it as a config file or writing your own functions

You can use Grunt as a config file or JavaScript by writing your functions via Node Modules. See More

Top Pro

Grunt v1.0 alpha uses Orchestrator for maximum concurrency

Grunt version 1 alpha, aka grunt-next, the upcoming next major release of Grunt, uses Orchestrator to sequence and execute tasks and dependencies with maximum concurrency, potentially bringing it up to speed with Gulp in term of performance. See More

Top Pro

An API that makes writing and using of plugins extremely easy

The API is built in such a way that if you write a Grunt task that is useful for someone else out there or would be useful for future projects, it can be easily made into a grunt plugin and then shared using npm. See More

Top Pro

Shell commands inside Grunt

There is a Grunt plugin called grunt-exec which allows developers to execute shell commands inside their Grunt files. This is extremely easy if a developer is developing only in Node and constantly getting out of Node environment to run something like a git command can become frustrating. See More

Specs

Number of Plugins:4000+

Processing method:FIle-based

Task instruction style:Configuration

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27 15