The document explains the differences between global and local package installations in Node.js, detailing when to use each type based on the desired application functionality. It also introduces global objects that are accessible across modules, such as console and process, as well as common global strings. Additionally, it covers Gulp as a toolkit for automating development tasks, highlighting its simplicity and compatibility across various platforms.

1. Node JS
Module 2 – Packages Global vs Local

2. Global Packages vs Local Packages
 globally —- This drops modules in {prefix}/lib/node_modules, and puts
executable files in {prefix}/bin, where {prefix} is usually something like
/usr/local. It also installs man pages in {prefix}/share/man, if they’re
supplied.
 locally —- This installs your package in the current working directory. Node
modules go in ./node_modules, executables go in ./node_modules/.bin/, and
man pages aren’t installed at all.
 Whether to install a package globally or locally depends on the global config,
which is aliased to the -g command line switch.

3. Which to choose
The rule of thumb is:
 If you’re installing something that you want to use in your program, using
require('whatever'), then install it locally, at the root of your project.
 If you’re installing something that you want to use in your shell, on the
command line or something, install it globally, so that its binaries end up in
your PATH environment variable.
 There are some cases where you want to do both. Coffee-script and Express
both are good examples of apps that have a command line interface, as well
as a library.

4. Global Objects
 Global objects are available in all modules.
 Global objects need not to be included in application rather we can use them
directly.
 These could be Strings, objects, functions , modules also.
 Few Examples:
 Console
 Process

5. Global Strings
 Few Examples:
 __filename
 __dirname
 setTimeout(cb,ms)
 clearTimeout(t)
 setInterval(cb,ms)

6. Automating with Gulp
 What is gulp?
 Automation - gulp is a toolkit that helps you automate painful or time-consuming tasks in
your development workflow.
 Platform-agnostic - Integrations are built into all major IDEs and people are using gulp
with PHP, .NET, Node.js, Java, and other platforms.
 Simple - By providing only a minimal API surface, gulp is easy to learn and simple to use

7. Gulp methods
 Src: name of the file we work with
 Pipe: output of previous command as pipe it as input for the next
 Dest: writes the output to folder we specify

8. Example
Gulp.task(‘copy’,function(){
Gulp.src(‘index.html’)
.pipe(gulp.dest(‘assets’))
});