🙋 Document how to remove unused JavaScript code from the bundle

[dolebas]

🙋 feature request

Expected Behavior

When a library is required but parts of it are not used, I should be able to figure out how to remove the unused code from the bundle.

Current Behavior

If a library is added with var abc = require('library'), unused JavaScript is not removed from the bundle by default.

Code Sample

npx create-choo-app and add web3 = require('web3') to index.js

Your Environment

Software	Version(s)
Package	bankai@9.11.1
Runtime	node@v8.11.1
Package Manager	npm@5.8.0
Operating System	macOS@10.13.4

[goto-bus-stop]

I don't know if we can safely do this because some modules rely on side effects. eg:

require('babel-polyfill')
new WeakSet()

here babel-polyfill does not appear to be "used", but in old browsers the WeakSet global variable would not be available without that require call.

[dolebas]

The solution in my case was to follow your good advice and find a different library with a better separation of concerns.

Requiring the specific export 'ethers/providers' perfectly removed unused/not required code in the 'ethers' library from the bundle.

Maybe docs could require the wording "not required" instead of "unused" where it makes sense? =)