Better syntax by removing .pipe()

Is there any reason for using .pipe() to chain the actions? Chaining them directly would make more sense to me.

Current syntax

// Styles
gulp.task('styles', function() {
  return gulp.src('src/styles/main.scss')
    .pipe(sass({ style: 'expanded', }))
    .pipe(autoprefixer('last 2 version', 'safari 5', 'ie 8', 'ie 9', 'opera 12.1', 'ios 6', 'android 4'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/styles'))
    .pipe(rename({ suffix: '.min' }))
    .pipe(minifycss())
    .pipe(livereload(server))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/styles'))
    .pipe(notify({ message: 'Styles task complete' }));
});

Proposed syntax

// Styles
gulp.task('styles', function() {
  return gulp.open('src/styles/main.scss') // open instead of gulp.src()
    .sass({ style: 'expanded', })
    .autoprefix() // verb instead of noun
    .save('dist/styles') // save instead of gulp.dest()
    .rename({ suffix: '.min' })
    .minifycss()
    .livereload(server)
    .save('dist/styles') // save instead of gulp.dest() 
    .notify({ message: 'Styles task complete' });
});

Does it make sense?

[phated]

No, that is not how streams work. Please review the docs on stream basics.

[yocontra]

If you really wanted this behavior you could write a library that loads stuff onto the Stream prototype like so

var Stream = require('stream');
var sass = require('gulp-sass');
var gulp = require('gulp');

var attach = function(name, fn){
  Stream.prototype[name] = function(){
    return this.pipe(fn.apply(fn, arguments));
  };
};

attach('open', gulp.src);
attach('save', gulp.dest);

// TODO: go through all installed gulp plugins and load them
// possibly use gulp-load-plugins for this
attach('sass', sass);

This would let you chain stuff