change in v5: const {inspect} = require('util'); can lead to web bundle bloat

[dylang]

This was added in v5 for deserializeError:

const {inspect} = require('util');

This adds about 8KB to web bundles, which can be significant, especially in projects not using deserializeError.

Possible solutions:

• Not worry about 8KB and tell developers to use v4 if bundle size is of concern.
• Separate serializeError into a separate file that can be imported without the deserializeError code.
• Separate deserializeError into a new module.
• Publish code with ES6-style import, add sideEffects: false to the package.json to enable tree shaking in the module.
• Other ideas?

[sindresorhus]

I didn't realize people used this in the browser.

We could maybe add {"browser": {"util": false}} to package.json and check for its existence before using it? However, then the output will not be consistent between Node.js and the browser. Not sure that matters. Or we could find a simpler way to show the type. It's not important. It's just a bonus to make it easier to debug passed values that are not really deserializable as errors.

We should probably also guard

serialize-error/index.js

Line 8 in 480ed36

Error.captureStackTrace(this, NonError);

then, as it doesn't exist in Firefox.

[rohan-deshpande]

Thanks for this issue. I think this is a really handy lib and making it universal is a good idea! I support this approach:

Or we could find a simpler way to show the type. It's not important. It's just a bonus to make it easier to debug passed values that are not really deserializable as errors.

Basically the only reason for using inspect here is to be able to find out what happened right? Just for debugging purposes? I think if there is some light weight way to implement this that'd be ideal, maybe just use JSON.stringify if it's an object?

[sindresorhus]

Yeah, we could probably just use JSON.stringify.

[vladimiry]

I didn't realize people used this in the browser.

Using deserializeError in browser is a quite common case. Like when you serialize the error on backed and serve it to in-browser client or main process => renderer process interaction in the case of @electron IPC use.

Such change seems to be working well.

[sindresorhus]

@vladimiry A PR would be welcome :)

[vladimiry]

Going to adjust tests and PR then.

[vladimiry]

PR placed: #27.