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Show HN: CommonJS module implementation for the browser

3 points by bgrohman ↗ HN
I built a really simple CommonJS module implementation for defining/requiring javascript modules in a browser environment that doesn't load scripts asynchronously (or at all, for that matter).

https://github.com/bgrohman/cardboard.js

I originally did this for fun and to learn about CommonJS, but I'm curious to see if anyone else thinks this might be useful.

4 comments

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firefoxman1
So are you saying the module loading is not asynchronous?
bgrohman
Well, there isn't actually any module loading. The define function lets you define new modules with dependencies. The require function returns a reference to a module or throws an exception if it hasn't been loaded.

The idea is that you get to use CommonJS-style module definition in conjunction with old-school script loading using script tags. This could be used during a transition of a large project to something more robust like RequireJS. Or it could be used if your application has to support high-latency connections where you need to minimize the number of HTTP requests.

firefoxman1
Ahh I see. That's really cool! No bloat and easy to use. I'll have to consider this for my next project. Honestly I think CommonJS gets too much flack. It's bounds better than ECMAScript Harmony's module draft.
bgrohman
Thanks! Yeah, ECMAScript Harmony's module proposal uses new syntax, which basically means most developers won't be able to use it for a while. Also, I'm not sure if Harmony supports loading/using multiple modules defined in a single file.