Chapter 1, Introducing Gulp, focuses on helping you understand the languages and tools that you will use. You will learn how to use Gulp to perform automated tasks for your development workflow.
Chapter 2, Getting Started, deals with getting your local environment set up by installing any software that is needed to move forward. You will learn how to use a command-line interface and take a look at the anatomy of a gulpfile.
Chapter 3, Understanding the Basics of Gulp, explains the basics of Gulp and how its various methods interact with one another to create a gulpfile. You will learn how to use npm to install plugins and prepare yourself with the necessary knowledge to write your own tasks and gulpfile.
Chapter 4, Performing Tasks with Gulp, demonstrates how to create a set of base tasks for handling common workflow processes such as concatenating, minifying, and pre-processing your files.
Chapter 5, Creating Advanced Tasks, explores ways to improve our gulpfile by introducing new tasks and modifying our previous tasks to be more robust. This chapter also covers when and why to use Node.js modules instead of Gulp plugins. You will learn how to create various tasks that will run a static server, sync your project files with your browser(s), and implement Browserify and Babel to take advantage of the latest JavaScript features.
Chapter 6, Tips, Tricks, and Resolving Issues, covers how to improve your tasks by adding better error handling, ordering your source files, and cleaning up your compiled code. Additionally, you will learn how to set up task dependencies, generate source maps, use an external config file, and even leverage Babel so that you can begin writing your gulpfiles using ES2015.
