Many developers already have the Node.js toolchain installed on their machines but when I lead workshops there are always a few who don't. The process of installing Node build toolchains can take quite a bit of time for new users (especially on Windows). To simplify the process of getting the [gulp][1] toolchain setup, [Bruce Eckel][2] and I created [gulp launcher][3]. With a fresh system you can run gulp with only one download and one command:

```bash
$ gulp
Downloading jq 1.3 for x86_64 MAC
Downloading Node 0.10.33 for x86_64 MAC
... npm install output ...
[09:13:25] Using gulpfile ~/projects/gulp-starter/gulpfile.js
[09:13:25] Starting 'default'...
[09:13:25] Finished 'default' after 7.28 μs
```

On Windows the user can just double click on `gulp.exe` and it will run the default task for the gulp build.

If you want to try it out either download `gulp` (Linux, Mac, and Cygwin) or `gulp.exe` (Windows) from the [latest release][4]. Or if you want a ready-to-go starter gulp project, grab the [gulp-starter][5] project.

I've setup automated tests for the gulp launcher on [Travis CI][6] and [AppVeyor][7] but there isn't a lot of real-world testing yet. So if you discover any problems please [file an issue][8]. Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

 [1]: http://gulpjs.com/
 [2]: https://bruceeckel.github.io/
 [3]: https://github.com/jamesward/gulp-launcher
 [4]: https://github.com/jamesward/gulp-launcher/releases
 [5]: https://github.com/jamesward/gulp-starter
 [6]: https://travis-ci.org/jamesward/gulp-launcher
 [7]: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/jamesward/gulp-launcher
 [8]: https://github.com/jamesward/gulp-launcher/issues