Building JavaScript Without the Build Step
Front-end developer Elise Hein has a confession: she’s rarely had the luxury of working on the front end full time. Constantly dipping in and out of JavaScript means navigating the ecosystem all over again with each project, and framework fatigue is real. Rather than update an ancient Browserify build or upgrade from Polymer to LitElement, she decided to go “stackless.”
Hein isn’t dogmatic about the approach, but she argues that if you can pull off a project with literally zero build process, it feels good while working on it, and very good when you return months or years later—you just pick up and go.
Native support for imports goes a long way, she says. As she puts it: “Native support for modularity is the most important step towards a build-free codebase.” If she could have only one ES6 feature, modules would take her most of the way toward well-structured native JavaScript.
The tech ecosystem is not far off from making build-free JavaScript a practical reality. If nothing else, the idea of a codebase that doesn’t require a toolchain to open and run is an appealing one for anyone juggling multiple projects. Direct Link →
