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Re: Prevention of selection

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Michael Haufe (TNO) wrote:
> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> AISB, where I am working now we are using Babel as a Node module, triggered
>> by another Node module, Webpack: <https://github.com/babel/babel-loader>
>> (I did not introduce this.)
> 
> What do you prefer instead? 

I have no preferences in that regard because I have not had the time (and
probably are not going to have it anytime soon; my astrophysics studies take
precedence now) to evaluate alternatives.

The point that I was trying to make is that it was NOT *my* decision to use
Babel and Webpack; *other* developers had made that decision for me before
I joined the company, based on recommendations of yet *other* developers;
*and* I can find nothing *inherently* wrong in their decision.

So (the /ad hominem/ fallacy aside) it is illogical to argue that I would be
a “moron” pointing out the usefulness of ES 6+.  Because if I would be a
“moron” using it then virtually all developers of ECMAScript-based programs
today, including those at Airbnb, except The Greatest Software Developer of
All Times[tm] Julio Di Egidio, would be “morons”.

    [Unfortunately, it is all too evident that it is the other way around.
     It is the mental patient calling the asylum’s nurses “crazy” instead;
     or, as we say in the German-speaking Usenet: „*Ein* Geisterfahrer?
     *Hunderte*!“.

     That is not to say that the majority has to be correct:

       “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence
        whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the
        silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is
        more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

          –Bertrand Russell, “Marriage and Morals” (1929)

     However, to reject a widely held opinion, and to hold a different
     opinion, *without* any reason, is irrational itself – no matter how
     irrational the rejected opinion might be.]

Now that I am using Babel in my employment, I appreciate the fact that with
a few exceptions (one being “let … of” which Babel transpiles to code that
uses Symbol.iterator and is thus incompatible with IE 11; but I might be
close to a solution for that) I can use ES 6+ syntax in client-side code.
I would use it in my free time, too (if I had any free time left to
restructure my build process).

However, I do object to the fact that Webpack is creating one large script
resource (despite minifying) that tends to be more difficult to be debugged
(despite source maps); I would prefer the more modular requireJS() approach
(load dependencies only as needed).  I have just read “Bracer Jack”’s LCARS
Manifesto¹ [1] again, and I find most reasonable their idea that the
compiler of a programming language, not the software developer, should
determine from the source code which dependencies need to be loaded before
the program can be successfully executed.  This should indeed be possible by
the source code analysis that the compiler does anyway, and appears to be a
way forward in modularization.

On the other hand, I appreciate the code structuring that comes with ES 6+
modules that are supported by Webpack, and I have no data to prove that the
requireJS() approach would not be less efficient, especially with mobile
devices, or less error-prone.  And since in the foreseeable future I am not
going have the time to develop my alternative approach, I have no problem
sticking with Webpack for now, at least in my employment.

_______
¹  I have referred their LCARS research (not the Manifesto, but it is
   referred at the end of that) on the home page of my Web site, since it
   helped me a lot designing my Web site; however, FTR, now that I have
   read it more carefully, I must strongly object to their use of racial
   slurs to describe approaches that they consider wrong.  (That might also
   explain why the original is not online anymore.)

[1]
<http://web.archive.org/web/20120308211518/http://www.bracercom.com/tutorial/content/lcars_manifesto/the_lcars_manifesto.html>
-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
Please do not cc me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

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Thread

Re: Prevention of selection JJ <jj4public@vfemail.net> - 2019-04-18 09:05 +0700
  Re: Prevention of selection Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2019-04-18 04:45 +0200
  Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-17 23:46 -0700
    Re: Prevention of selection Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2019-04-18 15:14 +0200
      Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-18 22:50 -0700
        Re: Prevention of selection Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2019-04-19 15:49 +0200
          Re: Prevention of selection John G Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2019-04-19 15:15 +0100
            Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-19 08:35 -0700
          Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-19 08:53 -0700
            Re: Prevention of selection Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2019-04-20 03:27 +0200
              Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-20 01:54 -0700
              Re: Prevention of selection Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2019-04-20 02:00 -0700
          Re: Prevention of selection "Michael Haufe (TNO)" <tno@thenewobjective.com> - 2019-04-19 20:37 -0700
            Re: Prevention of selection Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2019-04-20 12:41 +0200
    Re: Prevention of selection JJ <jj4public@vfemail.net> - 2019-04-19 12:16 +0700

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