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Bundlers also tie clients to developers without them realizing. I work for a webhost and Many people still assume that if they have access to their hosting the

Bundlers also tie clients to developers without them realizing. I work for a webhost and Many people still assume that if they have access to their hosting then they have their "source code". We see often that people migrate a sites after breaking ties with a developer only to find what they have may function, but is unmaintainable.

7bit 2y ago
Sounds like a contractual thing, not like a bundler thing. The client should always include a clause into the contract that the client must hand all work over after closing the partnership.
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  Yep, just ask for their source code, don't presume that the hosted work is sufficient.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    Yeah this is no different than receiving a binary rather than the source, bundled code is close enough for this comparison (though it would be probably easier to unbundle code rather than decompile a binary, it’s still a fair amount of work)
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y ago
    Client should ask, but ideally this will be written into the contract beforehand. I don't mind sharing source code but not for re-use in other projects.
- brailsafe 2y ago
  > The client should always include a clause into the contract that the client must hand all work over after closing the partnership. I think you might have meant that the developer should hand over all source material after the agreement has been fulfilled.
  - 7bit 2y ago
    Indeed, thanks.
hypeatei 2y ago
The same could be said for compilers, too. Deployed binaries and code have never been the "source" of your app.
iamleppert 2y ago
Source code costs extra, everyone knows that! Get the bag!
evilduck 2y ago
You'd struggle to extract a maintainable codebase from a C# or Golang web server after the fact too. As an industry we've been making simple websites on shared hosting for over a generation, clients who ignore the entire world of information about the dangers and pitfalls on this topic are squarely to blame as negligent. It ranks up there with not paying taxes and then acting shocked when the government comes knocking. While Javascript could potentially be contractually mandated to be written in a way to facilitate production codebase recovery, if you knew enough to ask for that you wouldn't, you'd require them to use your source control and to provide build/deployment scripts instead.

7bit 2y ago

Sounds like a contractual thing, not like a bundler thing. The client should always include a clause into the contract that the client must hand all work over after closing the partnership.

satvikpendem 2y ago
Yep, just ask for their source code, don't presume that the hosted work is sufficient.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  Yeah this is no different than receiving a binary rather than the source, bundled code is close enough for this comparison (though it would be probably easier to unbundle code rather than decompile a binary, it’s still a fair amount of work)
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y ago
  Client should ask, but ideally this will be written into the contract beforehand. I don't mind sharing source code but not for re-use in other projects.
brailsafe 2y ago
> The client should always include a clause into the contract that the client must hand all work over after closing the partnership. I think you might have meant that the developer should hand over all source material after the agreement has been fulfilled.
- 7bit 2y ago
  Indeed, thanks.

hypeatei 2y ago

The same could be said for compilers, too. Deployed binaries and code have never been the "source" of your app.

iamleppert 2y ago

Source code costs extra, everyone knows that! Get the bag!

evilduck 2y ago

You'd struggle to extract a maintainable codebase from a C# or Golang web server after the fact too. As an industry we've been making simple websites on shared hosting for over a generation, clients who ignore the entire world of information about the dangers and pitfalls on this topic are squarely to blame as negligent. It ranks up there with not paying taxes and then acting shocked when the government comes knocking. While Javascript could potentially be contractually mandated to be written in a way to facilitate production codebase recovery, if you knew enough to ask for that you wouldn't, you'd require them to use your source control and to provide build/deployment scripts instead.