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I think Webpack solves a real problem in the web world, but holy cow is it a pain to configure in large applications. Anyone who has had to maintain a larger (a

I think Webpack solves a real problem in the web world, but holy cow is it a pain to configure in large applications. Anyone who has had to maintain a larger (and often dynamic) Webpack configuration knows what I am talking about. I think Webpack is a step in the correct direction, but web bundlers are still in need of improving.

Cyph3r90 9y ago
I agree with it being hard to configure. But I think they have come a long way with documentation, and this eases the pain a bit.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
256cats 9y ago
True. Several times I have resorted to putting random console.log's into the webpack core and it's plugins as the only way to figure out why the configuration doesn't work.
- travmatt 9y ago
  You can also run your build in chrome canary and step through in the debugger: https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-bits-learn-and-debug-webpack-with-chrome-dev-tools-da1c5b19554 https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-bits-learn-and-debug-webp...
arxpoetica 9y ago
I've found Rollup easier to configure, fwiw. Ymmv.
- lilactown 9y ago
  Having just tried roll up, it makes a number of assumptions about your code. I couldn't get React 15.x to bundle correctly with my code at the end and switched to webpack.
seanwilson 9y ago
> I think Webpack solves a real problem in the web world, but holy cow is it a pain to configure in large applications. Anyone who has had to maintain a larger (and often dynamic) Webpack configuration knows what I am talking about. Maybe I was doing it wrong but for a previous project I was using SystemJS for module loading + bundling and Gulp for SASS + TypeScript compilation and livereload. I've replaced all of this with a much simpler (before I had too many differences between development and production builds) Webpack configuration that does everything. Setting up both configurations drove me up the wall with the usual array of "module not found" and "file not found" problems you have to persist with but the Webpack setup feels more robust now that it's working. Probably not an easy problem, but it would be amazing if build tools by default gave you a lot of help with debugging errors e.g. "module a/b/c not found, did you mean ../a/b/c?".

Cyph3r90 9y ago

I agree with it being hard to configure. But I think they have come a long way with documentation, and this eases the pain a bit.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

256cats 9y ago

True. Several times I have resorted to putting random console.log's into the webpack core and it's plugins as the only way to figure out why the configuration doesn't work.

travmatt 9y ago
You can also run your build in chrome canary and step through in the debugger: https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-bits-learn-and-debug-webpack-with-chrome-dev-tools-da1c5b19554 https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-bits-learn-and-debug-webp...

arxpoetica 9y ago

I've found Rollup easier to configure, fwiw. Ymmv.

lilactown 9y ago
Having just tried roll up, it makes a number of assumptions about your code. I couldn't get React 15.x to bundle correctly with my code at the end and switched to webpack.

seanwilson 9y ago

> I think Webpack solves a real problem in the web world, but holy cow is it a pain to configure in large applications. Anyone who has had to maintain a larger (and often dynamic) Webpack configuration knows what I am talking about. Maybe I was doing it wrong but for a previous project I was using SystemJS for module loading + bundling and Gulp for SASS + TypeScript compilation and livereload. I've replaced all of this with a much simpler (before I had too many differences between development and production builds) Webpack configuration that does everything. Setting up both configurations drove me up the wall with the usual array of "module not found" and "file not found" problems you have to persist with but the Webpack setup feels more robust now that it's working. Probably not an easy problem, but it would be amazing if build tools by default gave you a lot of help with debugging errors e.g. "module a/b/c not found, did you mean ../a/b/c?".