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Require.js is a Terrible Idea

6 points by mrpoptart 13y ago

m90 13y ago
The link 404s for me: "It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help."
- bjtitus 13y ago
  Probably realized how poorly researched the article was and just deleted it.
avolcano 13y ago
This is depressingly ill-informed. Require.js has an optimizer that does exactly what the author suggests: http://requirejs.org/docs/optimization.html http://requirejs.org/docs/optimization.html The point is to build your application using AMD, using individual assets in development, and then run the optimizer - which concats and adds a loader - for production. Alternatively, you can even go a step simpler and always use concatenated files, along with a minimal loader like Almond.js[1]. If you do this, you'll probably want to use something that adds source maps for your concatenated file (for easier debugging), but that's easy - you can use grunt-concat-sourcemap[2] or a similar plugin for whatever build system you like. [1]: https://github.com/jrburke/almond https://github.com/jrburke/almond [2]: https://github.com/kozy4324/grunt-concat-sourcemap https://github.com/kozy4324/grunt-concat-sourcemap
gpsarakis 13y ago
Minifying+concatenating is the most appealing solution for desktop browsers which employ a rather large cache on static files, considering that a web server is also fine-tuned to take advantage of caching (e.g. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_expires.html http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_expires.html). I am not sure though that this is the best approach for mobile devices; having to serve a relatively large JS/CSS file with (possible) network interruptions may increase page load time.
joebeetee 13y ago
Totally misses the point of Require JS - modularisation of code, dependancy management, namespacing, etc - beside the fact that it comes with an awesome optimiser that does mashes everything into one script anyway...
lightblade 13y ago
Even without require.js' r.js optimization tool, having multiple source files like this is not necessarily a bad thing. Smaller files are more likely for browsers to cache them. If you concatenate all source files into one 5MB[1] file, it is unlikely the browser is going to cache that. This is more of a trade off than absolute best thing. [1]: http://serverfault.com/questions/338722/what-is-the-maximum-file-size-that-will-be-cached-by-a-browser http://serverfault.com/questions/338722/what-is-the-maximum-...

6 points by mrpoptart 13y ago

m90 13y ago

The link 404s for me: "It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help."

bjtitus 13y ago
Probably realized how poorly researched the article was and just deleted it.

avolcano 13y ago

This is depressingly ill-informed. Require.js has an optimizer that does exactly what the author suggests: http://requirejs.org/docs/optimization.html http://requirejs.org/docs/optimization.html The point is to build your application using AMD, using individual assets in development, and then run the optimizer - which concats and adds a loader - for production. Alternatively, you can even go a step simpler and always use concatenated files, along with a minimal loader like Almond.js[1]. If you do this, you'll probably want to use something that adds source maps for your concatenated file (for easier debugging), but that's easy - you can use grunt-concat-sourcemap[2] or a similar plugin for whatever build system you like. [1]: https://github.com/jrburke/almond https://github.com/jrburke/almond [2]: https://github.com/kozy4324/grunt-concat-sourcemap https://github.com/kozy4324/grunt-concat-sourcemap

gpsarakis 13y ago

Minifying+concatenating is the most appealing solution for desktop browsers which employ a rather large cache on static files, considering that a web server is also fine-tuned to take advantage of caching (e.g. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_expires.html http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_expires.html). I am not sure though that this is the best approach for mobile devices; having to serve a relatively large JS/CSS file with (possible) network interruptions may increase page load time.

joebeetee 13y ago

Totally misses the point of Require JS - modularisation of code, dependancy management, namespacing, etc - beside the fact that it comes with an awesome optimiser that does mashes everything into one script anyway...

lightblade 13y ago

Even without require.js' r.js optimization tool, having multiple source files like this is not necessarily a bad thing. Smaller files are more likely for browsers to cache them. If you concatenate all source files into one 5MB[1] file, it is unlikely the browser is going to cache that. This is more of a trade off than absolute best thing. [1]: http://serverfault.com/questions/338722/what-is-the-maximum-file-size-that-will-be-cached-by-a-browser http://serverfault.com/questions/338722/what-is-the-maximum-...