Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
doc: first pass at minimal-kernel
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
MylesBorins committed Sep 12, 2018
1 parent 248fff2 commit 2cb7451
Showing 1 changed file with 41 additions and 0 deletions.
41 changes: 41 additions & 0 deletions doc/minimal-kernel.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
# What is a Minimal Kernel for ESM in Node.js?

A minimal kernel is a subset of features that the @nodejs/modules group have agreed will be necessary for all potential iterations of our ESM implementation. It strips out any features that preclude other features

# Why build a Minimal Kernel?

Having a minimal kernel creates a subset that we can build consensus on top of. It will also allow sharing features across proposals that potentially have different end goals and feature sets. Finally, reaching consensus on a minimal kernel is a win for the team, showing that we do indeed have a layer of consensus even if it is not entirely clear.

# What is our minimal kernel

* both browser + node need bare imports
- implementation to be discussed
* we cannot have dynamic path searching
- requiring the full path is an issue for tooling and a long term solution is required
- migration strategies also have issue with this
* common.js backwards compat
- createRequireFunction does
- import.meta.require does not fail early enough
- hold off on importing common.js until more progress is made on dynamic modules spec
* .mjs will be the only way to import ESM
- intention is to move forward with format databases to map extensions and support multiple use cases
* only supporting importing ESM
- no JSON
- no native modules
- createRequireFunction used to get these
- will come back with format database

# How will we implement the minimal kernel

* removing importing of formats other than ESM
- no common.js
- no JSON
- no nativemodules
* removing of dynamic path searching
- no extension adding
- no directory resolution
- no support for index.js
- still maintaining support for the main field
* adding createRequireFunction


0 comments on commit 2cb7451

Please sign in to comment.