ESM build about littlejs

[KilledByAPixel]

That's great, thanks for doing this. When I created LJS I decided not to use modules in order to keep things as simple as possible. Generally I have not used modules that much, can you tell me more about why you prefer to use them for something like this?

Would it be possible to to make the engine build system automatically spit out engine.all.module.js? Also, is the header actually necessary?

It seems like it just needs a footer with all the missing get/set functions and the export line. I can update engine.bat file to combine all and the footer and spit out engine.all.module.js in addition to the other files. Does that sound good?

[Lukenickerson]

I love modules, and have found them good for a few reasons:

• Avoids polluting the global namespace. Import/export makes it very clear where dependencies are coming from when you open a file.
• Along those lines, since I usually use linting (ESLint extension) on my js files to check syntax, having no globals helps.
• No need to modify HTML <script> tags to bring in new modules; just import them in your js.

I anticipate the developer experience for LittleJS with ESM will be:

1. Make a new project (npm init, add html and js files)
2. Run npm i littlejsengine
3. Use import * as engine from 'littlejsengine'; (or some subset of methods, e.g., import { engineInit } from 'littlejsengine';) in their js.
4. Do some build process

Also, is the header actually necessary?

No. I thought there might be some use for it later on, but I guess not.

Does that sound good?

Yes! I made the changes and made a PR: #42 Let me know what you think.

[LeFede]

+1 to make LittleJS modules-friendly.

I'm using vite to build my stuff, and when it creates the release folder it skips adding the scripts that are not modules and modules not being used.

Of course you can manually add the files to the distribution build but it's something you don't want to do everytime.

I also use an app that makes it possible to use webpages as applications and it comes with a predefined set of commands that makes it impossible (I guess) to build the executable and add files manually right after.

So yeah +1 overall 🦊

[KilledByAPixel]

esm build now included! still needs work but this is a good path forward, thanks for your help and advice.

[KilledByAPixel]

Modules now fully supported and I added a demo that uses them!

https://killedbyapixel.github.io/LittleJS/examples/module/