vue-server-renderer can't be compiled server-side with webpack 4

[bgraceful]

What problem does this feature solve?

Webpack or likely any other bundler/compiler/sequencer is not going to be able to resolve dynamic require statements:

Example Added in comments (and at fiddle)

https://jsfiddle.net/te1b83jx/5/

Hence the webpack warning:

node_modules/vue-server-renderer/build.dev.js 9295:15-9298:9
Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression

https://github.com/vuejs/vue/blob/dev/packages/vue-server-renderer/build.dev.js#L9295

Using:

const renderer = eval("require")('vue-server-renderer').createRenderer()

And including "vue-server-renderer" in the node_modules as I would imagine most people do, avoids this inconvenience, however IMO it's really nice to be able to compile system level javascript to a few javascript files (one for each process more or less... etc.)

What does the proposed API look like?

Well if the module evaluation could be done in a way that doesn't necessitate a dynamic require statements, that would be really cool. : )

[bgraceful]

Example.tar.gz

[Tofandel]

Adding to this that when importing it, if you have

        new webpack.DefinePlugin({
            'process.env': {
                'NODE_ENV': JSON.stringify(process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'),
                'VUE_ENV': '"server"'
            }
        })
    ]

In your webpack config, it will throw an error about left hand side assignment because vue server renderer is defining the process.env at runtime
In build.dev.js

process.env.VUE_ENV = 'server';

Which gets compiled to "server" = 'server';