Simplify build process

[matheus23]

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Seeing #116 made me remember I had some questions about the build process in drive:

• why are we using pnpm?
• why are we copying files from node_modules into web_modules? (I guess not everything is on npm?)
• why are we running terser instead of just using esbulid's --minify flag?

Can we simplify the build process?

[matheus23]

Oh and we could use esbuild's --define flag instead of using mustache for providing the constants defined in config/.

[matheus23]

Ok I understand now that during development, we simply don't use any bundling. This is probably some of the reason for some of the things on this list.

Makes me think of snwopack. But in general I'd rather get rid of build depndencies than add more :)

[icidasset]

1. I like pnpm better than npm and yarn. Mostly because the efficient storage method and better errors than yarn. And it's hella fast.
2. Originally we used snowpack (v1), this was before it had any build tasks. Some dependencies that are on NPM require compilation before they are usable in the browser. But since I avoided webpack and stuff like that, I used services like https://bundle.run/ instead.
3. We weren't using esbuild until very recently, so we can probably use esbuild here instead yeah.

Good find regarding --define flag, looks useful.

[matheus23]

I like pnpm better than npm and yarn. Mostly because the efficient storage method and better errors than yarn. And it's hella fast.

:+1:

Originally we used snowpack (v1), this was before it had any build tasks. Some dependencies that are on NPM require compilation before they are usable in the browser. But since I avoided webpack and stuff like that, I used services like https://bundle.run/ instead.

I'd be super happy trying out snowpack v3 for drive today! I've had good experiences using it for https://github.com/matheus23/flatmate. I think it would make the Justfile significantly simpler, too:

• No need to copy around files from node_modules to web_modules
• No more similarily structured hot and dev-build tasks. --hot is then only a flag for the snowpack's dev server

We weren't using esbuild until very recently, so we can probably use esbuild here instead yeah.

:+1:

Good find regarding --define flag, looks useful.

I'm crossing my fingers that it works with snowpack :sweat_smile:

So, in general, would you be happier with drive being powered by snowpack?

[icidasset]

Well, we used snowpack previously and moved away from it. I never use hot reloading personally, so I didn't keep it around for that purpose. Other than that I don't see much use for it.

The reason we copy those few node modules isn't for Drive itself, it's for the https://github.com/fission-suite/drive/blob/master/src/Static/Html/Reception.html But yeah I agree, if we'd have extra dependencies, we would need to copy them.

And we'd still need that download task https://github.com/fission-suite/drive/blob/master/Justfile#L73-L76 because those dependencies aren't written in ES6, so you can't use them directly from node_modules with snowpack, even with their commonjs compatibility layer.

[icidasset]

That said, if the HMR is much better for you with snowpack, feel free to add it.

[icidasset]

What I originally loved about snowpack is now https://www.npmjs.com/package/esinstall/ I'll add that soon.