Any reasons not to use Angular CLI to get started?

Question

I'm trying to decide if I should use Angular CLI for a new project. My primary reason for doing so would be to avoid the hassles of setting up a new project right now and instead focus on learning the new Angular and building the application.

I'm coming from Angular 1.x so the hassles for me stem from learning all the new tooling in addition to the new Angular. Most of the docs reference systemjs but webpack seems like the direction the community is moving in so I would like to go that route.

I would prefer to learn and become comfortable with the Angular toolchain (including webpack) but I'd like to push that off a little if possible. I generally don't prefer "black boxes" like the CLI.

I would like to start by using the CLI and then break away at a point in the future when I have time to invest in learning more about webpack, etc. My question is: What limitations does the CLI put on me, can I easily break away from it in the future, and generally what else should I consider before using it as a quick way to get started?

Answer 1

I started working with Angular 2 while it was in Alpha, long before Angular-cli was available. During this early stage I struggled with the build environment - I was using systemjs and a whole pile of self-built spaghetti code of gulp tasks to handle transpiling, minifying, bundling etc. For every hour I spent writing angular code, however, it seemed I was spending two hours on the build environment. Did I learn alot? Sure. Was it a good use of my time? Not very.

The angular-cli changed all of that. It was built by the Angular team to accomplish all of the development and build tasks that an angular developer needs. It is always improving and when there have been problems they have been address quickly. I now can create an ng2 project in a few minutes with "ng new projectname --style=scss." I can run immediately in development mode with "ng serve." Changes automatically get compiled. I can build for production with "ng build -prod -aot" and have my entire ng2 project ready for production in minutes with Ahead of Time (aot) pre-compilation and tree-shaking.

So my advise to anyone would be this. If you want to quickly get into the serious work of building ng2 apps, and not waste your time re-creating the build and production environments yourself, then use angular-cli.

If you have time to burn and want to learn more about what's underneath the hood with angular2, then have a go at it yourself; you will certainly gain a better understanding of things; but you'll just end up using angular-cli anyway.

Answer 2

I am going to argue against using the CLI.

I have been using Angular 2 from the early days before RC. Indeed there was a lot of confusion back then, having to deal with all these packaging solutions (require.js, system.js, webpack). I got to admit that it was not a pleasant time back then, and it drained a lot of time.

BUT

Nowadays, I have a strong skill set in setting up builds and deployments. I have experimented with lots of possible ways to configure it and to achieve greatness. Recently we had to develop a plugins architecture for our webapp at the office. Guess what, knowing webpack has saved my skin big time. I was able to find an initial solution which was not that great. Eventually, after polishing it and taking advantage of webpack, we have created a really nice solution, with minimal code, without interfering in either webpack or angular architecture.

There is no chance that I would have been able to do this without all the pain of having to deal with webpack constantly. I hear very often misconceptions from my peers about how webpack and angular works. I do my best to explain stuff, but nothing beats doing it yourself. I'm sorry to say, but hiding behind the CLI will do you no good. A senior developer that I can trust to create new architecture must have solid webpack, angular and typescript know-how.

If you do not understand these tools properly you will be relegated to the menial tasks of applying existing patterns never to be trusted to go out there in the wild jungle and creat the new architecture for others to follow. You need to be able to think for yourself and to take your own decisions.

Conclusion

See whether or not the CLI is the tool for your current task and choose accordingly. Don't just blindly follow the first advice you see. If you are in charge of a project and you have to call the shots, knowing webpack is a must.