You end up with horrible long strings in package.json.
Dmitry M.
1

If the script is “horribly long” it’s likely doing too much and should be decomposed into multiple scripts. Otherwise, yes, moving to a separate file is useful.

Makefiles indeed remain useful, but they’re not cross-plat and many find npm scripts more approachable. Especially those already working in JS but not necessarily strong in their OS’s command line.