coffeescript registration lost after esm import

[dbushong]

If you have an object-graph file that ultimately somewhere tries to require() a coffeescript file, it doesn't seem to work.

I'm guessing it's related to the esm importing magic; if you console.log(require.extensions) right before this line:

nilo/lib/project.js

Line 192 in bab3bcf

const esmResult = this._importESM(id);

you see coffee, but if you do the same at the top of one of the object-graph.js files, the coffee registration is gone.

I'm not sure the right way to fix this; setting extensions: true in the cjs options to esm() didn't trivially fix it - do we still need ESM? Can we just tell people to use NODE_OPTIONS=--experimental-modules if they want mjs support?

[jkrems]

I assume that import(absoluteFileURL) would work with --experimental-modules and its presence should be fine in modern node w/o the flag as long as nothing tries to actually call it. In other words: I think getting rid of esm is fairly reasonable. Hopefully sometime in the next few month we'll get a "real" modules implementation in node without a flag 🤞.

[dbushong]

Hmm. Is there any way, let alone a good way to feature-detect and branch ESM-supporting code?

[dbushong]

I guess I could put the import-loading function into a .mjs file of its own, and try/catch requiring it?

[jkrems]

Starting at node 10, import('./x') isn't a syntax error. So in theory you could put it into a separate file right now and then remove that indirection once node 8 goes out of support.