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by dahauns 1490 days ago
You're kidding, right? Just going through the Concepts of webpack doesn't even scratch the surface - and will arguably leave many unsuspecting devs more confused than before, by e.g. still insisting on calling itself a "module bundler". You're a build system, ffs!
1 comments
maxloh 1490 days ago
You cannot learn programming just by reading. Try using it in practice. The concepts part should be enough to get you started for a simple vanilla JavaScript project.

If you need more (e.g. TypeScript/JSX/CSS support), You will need some third-party loaders or plugins. webpack itself is just a JavaScript bundler.

link
dahauns 1490 days ago
Well duh.

So it's "You just need to go through the webpack Concepts section"...except if you want to actually do some work with it.

See, that's the thing:

If like OP you are an experienced developer freshly coming to web frontend development, the Concepts pages of the webpack docs will tell you very little that you'd find unfamiliar. It's stuff that you've seen a variation of in countless other build systems. (At least that's how it was with me all those years ago.)

But as the docs themselves say: "Plugins are the backbone of webpack". And that's where Pandora's box opens...and where the designation as "just a JavaScript bundler" becomes ridiculous.

link