clarify doc on load()'s parentRequire parameter

[wkeese]

The parentRequire parameter passed to a plugin's load() method (and also writeFile() method?) seems to run in the context of the code that called the plugin, rather than in the plugin's context. I presume that's intentional. However, the documentation simply defines parentRequire as:

A local "require" function to use to load other modules.

So, you should probably update the doc.

You can confirm the current behavior by sticking a relative MID in your plugin. For example:

load: function (mid, require, onload, loaderConfig) {
    require(["./foo"], function () {
        ...
},

This tries to load foo from the directory of the code that called the plugin, rather from the directory where the plugin lives.

I also tested that a map configuration on the code that calls the plugin affects how that parentRequire() method works.

[jcrben]

Seems reasonable to tweak the docs. End users of plugins are thinking more in terms of the baseUrl of their main.js file so it seems intuitive to load relative to that.

[chrisknoll]

The thing that bothers me about the current behavior is that the same plugin will load a different file based on the module that called the plugin. This means in some cases the require(["./foo"]) will pull one module to load from one location, and another plugin call will cause require(["./foo"]) to load a different one. If a plugin is going to load a module, shouldn't it always know what module it is going to load, and not base it on the module context that called it?

[jrburke]

Mentioned in doc that the relative IDs are relative to the module referring to the ID, updated the site.

If the loader plugin wants a require that is relative to its own ID, then it should use the require it can get from its own define() definition:

define(function(require) {
  return {
    load: function(id, parentRequire, onload, config) {
        // use require() for plugin-relative IDs
    }
  };
});

[chrisknoll]

Ah, that outer require that is now scoped to the inner load function makes more sense now! Thanks!