Until now, we have only explored basic implementations of Gulp plugins to handle the various tasks that we've built in our gulpfile. In this chapter, you are going to learn how to use plain Node.js modules in our Gulp tasks and explore new ways to create tasks using plugins and node modules together.
Using plain Node.js modules
Using Gulp plugins is the easiest way to add functionality to your workflow. However, the actions that you need to perform inside your tasks are sometimes better off being written using plain Node.js modules and occasionally you will need to use plugins and Node.js modules together.
In this section, we will cover common usage of plain Node.js modules, when and why these modules should be used in place of (or alongside of) Gulp plugins, and some various examples you can use in your own gulpfile to improve your builds.
Why use plain Node.js modules?
A common misunderstanding...