As a reduced test case for experimentation, I set up a sample repository. The project uses jQuery, Lo-dash, and Handlebars, along with 50-or-so custom CommonJS modules (bundling to half a megabyte) to give Browserify something to work with.
In this repository, our ideal build system will do the following (doubly ideal would be doing these things quickly... we'll get there).
- Preprocess, prefix, and minify CSS
- Lint/Hint, Browserify, and Uglify our JavaScript
- Watch for changes and re-run any appropriate steps
Our build process at Pellucid has a few more requirements than this, but these should cover some of the longest operations, and this sample project should be generic enough to apply to many front-end projects.