How I learned to stop worrying and love task runners

NOTE: This is a legacy post from 2016. Some content may be outdated and images may not be available or be low quality.
Disclaimer: This content is my own opinion and should not be taken as fact.
In the last paragraph of the aforementioned article, I wrote:
If I’m being honest, Codekit will remain my tool of choice. I think for the sake of ‘fitting in’ at the hip London agencies, I’m going to run a project in Gulp just to make sure I understand the nuts and bolts of it but with each release, Codekit just gets better and better, whereas the other tools seem to just fade into obscurity.
THAT is what changed my mind, I did build a project in gulp, then another, then another and before I knew it, I couldn't live without it. The sheer power it provided was something completely unprecedented in my (not inconsiderable) time as a developer. To call it a paradigm shift would not be an understatement.
I'm not one for fashion, especially when it comes to web development, I'll take robust over flashy and new any day of the week, this can sometimes mean that it will take me a while to 'catch-on' to things which are legitimately the "next big thing". I do get there in the end though and now I consider task-runners to be indispensable when it comes to project architecture, when combined with other tools such as NPM and Yeoman, it transforms setting the basics of a new project up from an arduous task which could take hours (if not over a day on some projects) into one which takes only minutes!
So there you have it, don't discredit software just because it's new or because you've got a tried and tested tool under your belt. You never know unless you try.
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Alexander Foxleigh
Alex Foxleigh is a Senior Front-End Developer and Tech Lead who spends his days making the web friendlier, faster, and easier to use. He’s big on clean code, clever automations, and advocating for accessibility so everyone can enjoy tech - not just those who find it easy. Being neurodivergent himself, Alex actively speaks up for more inclusive workplaces and designs that welcome all kinds of minds.
Off the clock, Alex is a proud nerd who loves losing himself in video games, watching sci-fi, or tweaking his ever-evolving smart home setup until it’s borderline sentient. He’s also a passionate cat person, because life’s just better when you share it with furry chaos machines.