Build for js environment without npm?

Question

We are currently building our frontend js codebase (angularjs) using nodejs with grunt, which seems to be a popular setup, but we are not happy with this solution. Does anyone have suggestions for a build setup for e.g. linting, minimizing our js, running less, etc (in addition to some custom steps for angular in general and for our application specifically) without using nodejs at all?

I would leave it at that to avoid starting a flamewar, but here are, for context, some of the shortcomings of the current setup in our view:

• grunt does not have even the basic functionality of a 1970s build system, like automatically re-building only files that have been modified based on file modification time

• npm is causing constant headaches running on our build servers at every build

Answer 1

If grunt does not have even the basic functionality of a 1970s build system, why won't you use a 1970s build system then?

Just use make if that's what you're happy with. It still works fine. There's no reason not to use it if it you're satisfied with how it works.