Distributing ES2015 code is not user friendly

[kimmobrunfeldt]

First of all, I know there is no good solution to this.

This module uses ES2015 code as of 2.0.0 release https://github.com/sindresorhus/strip-indent/blob/v2.0.0/index.js. It makes using this module in our frontend code hard. We have these options:

1. Babelify all our external dependencies https://github.com/babel/babelify/tree/6d45fa84762f3b57a4b7bef0e1bbdf484614f74d#faq that would be too slow. (our problem)

2. Maintain a list of our ES6 code dependencies and only babelify those with the ignore and global options provided by babelify. This requires quite a lot of wasted maintenance from all app developers. (our problem)

3. Use 1.0.1 version of this module. This option loses maintenance for the module. (no one's problem)

4. The original module would release dist version of the module as ES5 code to NPM. (your problem)

   I personally think this is the best solution for now. For frontend and backend(< node 4) app developers requiring an ES6 module is in practice comparable to using a NPM module which has released their source code as CoffeeScript because using the module requires a build step. Ideally there could be a dedicated JS version attribute in package.json or some similar general purpose solution from NPM.

5. package.json should have a convention which indicates the JS version the package uses. (NPM's problem)

What do you think would be the best solution at this moment when we need to ship code that runs on older browsers too? And what would be the ideal solution? I'm interested about hearing your opinion. I didn't find this question yet at your ama repo.

[sindresorhus]

Not really something I care about, sorry. I make these modules for my own needs for use in Node.js. They do work fine in newer browsers, but it's up to you to make it work in older browsers if you need that. I don't really have any better solution than what you suggested. I would probably have used Webpack to create a bundle of only the needed JS and then run everything through Babel. That would probably be faster than running the whole dependency tree through Babel.

package.json should have a convention which indicates the JS version the package uses. (NPM's problem)

I already indicate which Node.js version I target in package.json, which should give an indication of the targeted JS version.

[AndersDJohnson]

@kimmobrunfeldt @sindresorhus I've created a webpack helper to automatically detect dependencies such as this one that may require Babel transpilation. See https://github.com/andersdjohnson/webpack-babel-env-deps. I'd love for you to try it, and star if you like. Feedback welcome. Perhaps more features to come.

[AndersDJohnson]

@kimmobrunfeldt @sindresorhus FYI there was an npm publish issue and other issues with webpack-babel-env-deps <1.2.4 - if you were trying to use, please upgrade.