ESM export is seen as default.default

[silverwind]

Because of the AMD wrapper, the AnsiUp export is seen as default.default.AnsiUp when the module is loaded in ESM context:

$ node
> await import("ansi_up")
[Module: null prototype] {
  __esModule: true,
  default: { default: [Function: AnsiUp] }
}

Ideally convert the module to ESM with export default AnsiUp which can be loaded direcly in a browser via import AnsiUp from "./ansi_up.js" without any extra <script> tag needed.

[drudru]

Hi, this is interesting.
I have not been the modules space.
Is there now a single standard way of using code in a browser and node?

[silverwind]

Yes, it's called ECMAScript Modules (ESM), or alternatively JavaScript modules. Some resources:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Modules
• https://nodejs.org/api/esm.html

It is possible to load such a module directly in a browser via import ... from 'url' syntax, removing the need for a extra script tag. Browser support this since around 5 years now, and the bundler ecosystem (webpack, vite, parcel) has more or less full support for it since probably around 2-3 years now.

[drudru]

@silverwind

Excellent, do you have a lot of experience with this?
Do I need to rename the resulting file with a .mjs suffix?

I am excited to finally get rid of the hack I had to implement.

[silverwind]

No, .mjs can be avoided with a "type": "module" in package.json. I can likely file a pull request to get this repo modernized. Afterwards, a 6.0.0 should be pushed as this change will require existing users to change their imports.

[Shaun-Regenbaum]

I did the required changes if you want and tested with a couple environments to make sure everything was backwards compatible. Hope it was helpful :) #83

[drudru]

@silverwind - please try the v6.0.0 branch

[silverwind]

Yes, looks good there:

$ node
> await import("ansi_up")
[Module: null prototype] { AnsiUp: [class AnsiUp] }

For the record, I installed via

npm i 'git+https://github.com/drudru/ansi_up.git#v6.0.0'

[drudru]

@silverwind - excellent, I want to get a few more things in and then I will create a release

[silverwind]

One caveat when going ESM is that some older code bases that are still using CommonJS (CJS) may not be able to import the module. Advice to them should be pretty much this.

There is a possibilty to dual-publish ESM and CJS, but I think it's generally not worth the trouble. You should definitely publish a new major version with this change.

[drudru]

Released