[freeqaz]

CommonJS requires invoking the code before the modules can be resolved, versus the ESModule syntax with "import" can be parsed out of the code separately (from the AST because it is a keyword). No invocation required.

I don't know if that's the entire story -- probably not -- but I do know that is one major differentiator for things like generating import-graphs and performing tree shaking.

(you can still do like `import('foo' + someVar)` which will only invoke dynamically at runtime, so I'm not sure how that case is dealt with)

[SahAssar]

> (you can still do like `import('foo' + someVar)` which will only invoke dynamically at runtime, so I'm not sure how that case is dealt with)

That case is dealt with more like a `fetch('foo' + someVar).then(r => eval(r.text()))` or similar (but of course it is not just a eval and it instead returns the exports of the module).

Dynamic imports and static ones behave very differently and static analysis generally ignores dynamic imports IIRC.

You also need to treat dynamic imports as async including everything that comes with that (error checking, awaiting, etc.)

[colejohnson66]

`import(...)` returns a `Promise`, so it can resolve in the future after the file is parsed and compiled.