Calypso build: optionally bundle @wordpress/icons

[simison]

Via WordPress/gutenberg#19809:

The design team plan to add hundreds/thousands of icons to this (@wordpress/icons) package for third-party users. That makes it impossible to load it as its own script (bundle size). Instead we should encourage its usage via npm and tree-shaking.

FYI @Automattic/team-calypso @sgomes

[sgomes]

Gutenberg seems to have chosen the SVG-in-JS route for now. In Calypso, we're currently doing icons with SVG spritemaps, which have a number of advantages in terms of runtime and loading performance.

My advice would be to opt out of @wordpress/icons for as long as possible in Calypso, and hopefully by that time the package will have taken a different approach, which @gziolo mentioned as a possibility at the end of the linked Gutenberg PR.

[simison]

Thanks for analyzing! FYI @kraftbj @jeherve since the same might apply to Jetpack.

[jeherve]

I'll be keeping an eye on this as well, this definitely seems like something we could use in many different areas of Jetpack.

[stale]

This issue has been marked as stale and will be closed in seven days. This happened because:

• It has been inactive in the past 9 months.
• It isn't a project or a milestone, and hasn’t been labeled `[Pri] Blocker`, `[Pri] High`, `[Status] Keep Open`, or `OSS Citizen`.

You can keep the issue open by adding a comment. If you do, please provide additional context and explain why you’d like it to remain open. You can also close the issue yourself — if you do, please add a brief explanation.