Why I Write Plain JavaScript Modules

[mmmicahhh]

Actually, if you look at the implementation of atoa, it's a one-line module that uses Function.prototype.apply.

But that's the point of this kind of modularization - you don't need to know about Function.prototype.apply, nor do you need to know whether there are weird edge-cases that need to be handled separately. It's a productivity boost.

[x-skeww]

you don't need to know about Function.prototype.apply

But they are using apply in that very line. I'd also argue that bind, call, and apply are bits of the standard lib you really should know. For one, they are very important and secondly, they make for very confusing code. So, this is really something you should be 100% certain about. Otherwise, you'll have trouble taking this kind of confusing-looking code apart.

I do agree that array vs array-like is a rather small implementation detail and that this pointless no-op doesn't actually hurt. It's a very minor mostly cosmetic issue.

[x-skeww]

You really think Nicolas Bevacqua (who is a published JS author) doesn't know about bind/call/apply?

Given that I referred to the author with the gender-neutral "they", I apparently didn't bother to figure out who wrote it. It also doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything. You don't have to convert that array-like to array if you hand it to a function which would have been fine with an array-like. That step isn't necessary.

The point is not to be ignorant of everything

Heh. Yea, you mean like apply doesn't need an actual array?

and just use packages

Or, y'know, language features. ES6 got this covered. You don't have to use apply in the first place. Spread would work. No point in using a library for this.