[chuckadams]

We have bundlers because for a long time we didn't have a module standard due to browsers hanging on to their minimal and simple model of `script src=`. Even now modules are pretty minimal fare. Plus there's all the transpiling and asset transformation, but hey we should all be using document.write and not those "bloated" frameworks on top of JS, right? Maybe jQuery if we want to get really bougie?

[Culonavirus]

A bundler is necessary evil and should be thought of and developed that way. Not celebrated. There should be like two or three flavors, e.g. like Cpp compilers (gcc/msvc/intel), ideally with a big corp backing and they should be rock solid and not change much.

The amount of bundlers I've seen in my time is borderline obscene. Nowadays it's even worse, as every javascript framework developer's actual secret fetish is to build their own bundler. Ideally in Rust because that's hip I guess.

Webpack, Snowpack, Parcel, Rollup, Esbuild, Vite, Turbopack... just stop. Enough.

[spoiler]

All of these are lessons learned from previous iterations. Also, some of these were probably in development for a while. If you're close to finishing a product, do you just stop and abandon months of work just because a challenger appeared? I wouldn't! Especially if you think you're doing something better than the competition

I've managed to cut down build times from ~1min (sometimes up to 3, but I couldn't even tell you why) when using Webpack and Babel to less than 200ms using just Rsbuild.

So, I welcome the improvement! The fact multiple people/orgs felt the need for this clearly means they felt the pain of slow builds too.

[8n4vidtmkvmk]

I've abandoned lots of projects when a worthy competitor appeared. They can take the burden of maintenance, yes please.

[spoiler]

Ha, I think I know what you mean, but I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. For me personally, I'm glad that Rsbuild didn't stop decekopem when something like esbuild popped up.

I'm sure people tied up in the roll-up ecosystem think the same about Vite and rolldown!

All these do things subtly differently in ways they think is the correct way. Maybe one will come on top or maybe something else comes along and integrates lessons from both and that eventually wins and all meintence moves there eventually.

The JS ecosystem is complex (for better or worse), and bundling for it isn't a simple as people believe. So it makes sense there's multiple things trying to tackle the same problem!

[chrstphrknwtn]

Import maps and type="module" are pretty good.

I prefer to spend my time building against that instead of another bundler.