Holy crap. Has it really been a year or so since I last hacked in earnest on\nParsec Patrol? I've been meaning to get back to it, and it's always felt like\njust last week when I was poking at it.
\nWell, a week or so ago, I read Blake Williams' \"Replace CoffeeScript\nwith ES6\" and thought, \"Hmm, on what project did I last use\nCoffeeScript? Oh yeah: Parsec patrol!\" So, I decided to take a swing through\nthe code and see what I was last up to.
\nAfter a good look, I started an empty new branch in my\nrepo and started from scratch.
\nSee, I started Parsec Patrol as an excuse to force myself to learn a bunch of\nnew things I'd been putting off for awhile. Near the top of the list were\nYeoman, Grunt, Bower, RequireJS, and CoffeeScript. Those\nwere all cool things, so I figured I'd just stir them all up in a big mess and\nsee what happened.
\nThe process was fun - these were things that slotted into empty spots in my\nwebdev process, both expected and unexpected. Of course, RequireJS was a\nlittle awkward in comparison to modules in Node.js. But hey, modules in\nthe browser! And, I never really quite grokked what was going on in those\ntangly Grunt configuration files and just kind of copypasta'd what others\nwere doing. But hey, build automation for all my weird webdev needs!
\nThen, after a nice & relaxing holiday vacation to wrap up 2013, I read \"And\njust like that Grunt and RequireJS are out, it’s all about Gulp and Browserify\nnow\".
\nWell that, along with things that followed, just drained my enthusiasm for\nGrunt, Bower, and RequireJS in an hurry. But, it didn't leave me\nwanting to dive into the next big thing right away. So, I took a step back and\nplayed with other things for a few seasons. Web components and developer\ntools are kind of fun to hack on. Polymer was kind of a crazy rabbit\nhole.
\nBut, over the past year, Gulp and Browserify started sneaking into my\nwork despite my fatigue - and they were helping me get things done. Gulp\nmade sense to me: writing glue code to process file streams fit into my head a\nwhole lot better than trying to figure out how to shoehorn my intentions into\ndeclarative-ish config files. And Browserify gave me some Node.js-style\nhappiness on the client-side, pushing most of the awkwardness into the build\nsystem.
\nSo, now I've got Gulp, NPM, Browserify, and 6to5 as a new pile\nof fun that seems like it might have a little bit of staying power. Of course,\nall this io.js business could throw some monkeywrenches around. But,\nit feels like the patterns I've got in play here are more stable than the\nprevious regime.
\nMaybe I'll even recover enough enthusiasm for chasing webdev mayflies by this\nspring to take a deeper dive at things like React and Angular and\nEmber. Then again, maybe I'll bang together a framework of my own just to\nbe cool.
\n\n", "body": "Holy crap. Has it really been a year or so since I last hacked in earnest on\n[Parsec Patrol][]? I've been meaning to get back to it, and it's always felt like\njust last week when I was poking at it.\n\nWell, a week or so ago, I read [Blake Williams'][blake] \"[Replace [CoffeeScript][]\nwith ES6][replace]\" and thought, \"Hmm, on what project did I last use\n[CoffeeScript][]? Oh yeah: [Parsec patrol][]!\" So, I decided to take a swing through\nthe code and see what I was last up to. \n\nAfter a good look, I started an empty [new branch][newbranch] in [my\nrepo][repo] and started from scratch.\n\nSee, I started [Parsec Patrol][] as an excuse to force myself to learn a bunch of\nnew things I'd been putting off for awhile. Near the top of the list were\n[Yeoman][], [Grunt][], [Bower][], [RequireJS][], and [CoffeeScript][]. Those\nwere all cool things, so I figured I'd just stir them all up in a big mess and\nsee what happened.\n\nThe process was fun - these were things that slotted into empty spots in my\nwebdev process, both expected and unexpected. Of course, [RequireJS][] was a\nlittle awkward in comparison to modules in [Node.js][]. But hey, modules in\nthe browser! And, I never really quite grokked what was going on in those\ntangly [Grunt][] configuration files and just kind of copypasta'd what others\nwere doing. But hey, build automation for all my weird webdev needs!\n\nThen, after a nice & relaxing holiday vacation to wrap up 2013, I read \"[And\njust like that Grunt and RequireJS are out, it’s all about Gulp and Browserify\nnow][justlikethat]\". \n\nWell that, along with things that followed, just drained my enthusiasm for\n[Grunt][], [Bower][], and [RequireJS][] in an hurry. But, it didn't leave me\nwanting to dive into the next big thing right away. So, I took a step back and\nplayed with other things for a few seasons. [Web components][] and [developer\ntools][] are kind of fun to hack on. [Polymer][] was kind of a crazy rabbit\nhole.\n\nBut, over the past year, [Gulp][] and [Browserify][] started sneaking into my\nwork despite my fatigue - and they were helping me get things done. [Gulp][]\nmade sense to me: writing glue code to process file streams fit into my head a\nwhole lot better than trying to figure out how to shoehorn my intentions into\ndeclarative-ish config files. And [Browserify][] gave me some [Node.js][]-style\nhappiness on the client-side, pushing most of the awkwardness into the build\nsystem.\n\nSo, now I've got [Gulp][], [NPM][], [Browserify][], and [6to5][] as a new pile\nof fun that seems like it might have a little bit of staying power. Of course,\n[all this io.js business][iojs] could throw some monkeywrenches around. But,\nit feels like the patterns I've got in play here are more stable than the\nprevious regime. \n\nMaybe I'll even recover enough enthusiasm for chasing webdev mayflies by this\nspring to take a deeper dive at things like [React][] and [Angular][] and\n[Ember][]. Then again, maybe I'll bang together a framework of my own just to\nbe cool.\n\n[polymer]: https://www.polymer-project.org/\n[react]: http://facebook.github.io/react/\n[angular]: https://angularjs.org/\n[ember]: http://emberjs.com/ \n[web components]: https://github.com/lmorchard/brick-select\n[developer tools]: https://github.com/lmorchard/node-firefox \n[node.js]: http://nodejs.org/\n[npm]: https://www.npmjs.com/\n[parsec Patrol]: https://github.com/lmorchard/parsec-patrol\n[Browserify]: http://browserify.org/\n[yeoman]: http://yeoman.io/\n[6to5]: https://6to5.org/\n[grunt]: http://gruntjs.com/\n[gulp]: http://gulpjs.com/\n[RequireJS]: http://requirejs.org/\n[bower]: http://bower.io/\n[CoffeeScript]: http://coffeescript.org/\n[iojs]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOukA10QeQ\n[repo]: https://github.com/lmorchard/parsec-patrol\n[justlikethat]: http://www.100percentjs.com/just-like-[grunt][]-[gulp][]-[browserify][]-now/\n[newbranch]: https://github.com/lmorchard/parsec-patrol/commits/newbranch\n[blake]: https://twitter.com/blakewilliams__\n[replace]: http://robots.thoughtbot.com/replace-[coffeescript][]-with-es6\n\n\n", "parentPath": "./content/posts/archives/2015", "path": "2015/02/09/parsec-patrol-resumes", "needsBuild": true, "prevPostPath": "2014/11/25/random", "prevPostTitle": "Random thoughts for 2014 Nov 25", "nextPostPath": "2015/04/15/goodbye-puck", "nextPostTitle": "Goodbye, Puck" }