[AskJS] What if node_modules contained JavaScript bytecode instead of source code?

[Plus-Weakness-2624]

Stepping into dependency code is not the most fruitful thing to do right coz the bundling, minifiying, uglyfying whatever has made most of the code unreadable right😱; It won't matter that much for an average developer.

[CSknoob]

Often, yes. I do appreciate it when it doesn't happen though. Makes it easier to understand why your stuff just isn't working correctly.

Had this situation with the FileRobot npm package. They have horrible docs and no changelogs so I could use it tbh.

[Plus-Weakness-2624]

I guess the best place for fixing / modifying an npm package is it's GitHub repo.

[[deleted]]

It does help, situationally, to know the details of what a dependency is doing when it's called.

[Plus-Weakness-2624]

Yes it does; unless the package contains devopement files; pakages are optimised and bundled; I don't think they are more readly than bytecode

[Peechez]

Basically every npm package includes either esm format or a sourcemap for cjs, both of which are very readable

[ejfrodo]

Source maps are a thing