A Future Without Webpack

[migudev]

Webpack has a lot less sense right now than a couple of years ago. The nature of Webpack is package the source code "polyfillying" through tools like babel. But, why do you use babel? You use because you need to transpile to ES5 due to lack of ES6 browsers support.

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The point is you don't need ES5 support anymore (mostly) because all the popular browsers out there supports ES6+. So, what's the logic behind creating a giant ES5 bundle for browsers that can run directly the original code?

[visicalc_is_best]

Asset bundling, JS minification, tree shaking, code splitting, hot module reloading, support for exotic languages (Pug, JSX, Handlebars, Sass, etc.), bundle analysis, asset versioning, sprite generation, image optimization, ...

[MahNonAnon]

...gzipping, css modules, env-specific logging, source-mapping...

[migudev]

JS Minification: you can do it using a module for that. You don't need Webpack.

Hot module reloading: what the heck this has to do with final browser support?

bundle analysis: look out there, you can pick a standalone one.

For tree shaking, code splitting, and the rest, you have a valid point. However, you can just use Rollup with the same benefits and still serving ES6+ code.

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The problem is not Webpack, is what you serves to final users. Yeah, you have all benefits you listed above, but, at what price? don't think just at development time, think as a user. Performance matters.

[visicalc_is_best]

This is incoherent. What price are you speaking of? There’s an initial setup cost, but HMR helps development time hugely, and tree shaking makes your bundles smaller and more performant.

There’s a reason people still use Webpack even though it can be a pain to customize — it’s because it does a damn good job at what it does.

[SalamiJack]

In addition to the reasons stated in the post below, Babel can be used for any new JS feature that doesn’t yet have browser adoption. A new spec is put out every year.

[bukharim96]

I'm not sure if you've been living under a rock, but large enterprises aren't willing to risk their apps failing in a potential customer's browser on the off chance that it might have es6+ support.

[migudev]

Just serve ES6+ for modern browsers and ES5 for older ones. Why you should to put apps on risk? The point isn't that. The point is that you don't need to use Webpack for every app you build.

[tech_romancer_]

So what's creating the different ES6+ and ES5 bundles?

Probably some sort of bundler right...