Size optimization about regl HOT 6 OPEN

Is it completely out of the question to use ES rather than commonJS modules?
Using something like https://github.com/rollup/rollup to compile the distributable module will save space as well as improve initialization performance. This is the route Three.js is going (mrdoob/three.js#9310).
cc @Rich-Harris

from regl.

I second the Rollup suggestion — it's wonderful.

from regl.

I put my money where my mouth is, if anyone on this thread is interested --> #364

from regl.

How does rollup would help here? regl doesn't have any 3rd party dependencies so is there anything that would be skipped during three shaking?

from regl.

As an enthusiastic regl user I'd be more than happy to help out with a conversion to ES modules.

@vorg Tree-shaking is an overstated benefit in many cases – the real benefits come from what has been termed 'scope hoisting'. With ES modules you don't need to wrap each module in a function and put it in a central cache; instead, everything lives in the same scope. You end up with a good deal less code (no per-bundle cost of including a require implementation, or per-module cost of function wrapper + require statements, etc) which is inherently more minifiable (because more things are variables rather than unmangleable properties of exports), and the real-world evidence is that parse time is considerably reduced by this approach.

You can get a feel for the sort of code Rollup generates here or using the interactive demo.

from regl.

I'm open to trying some stuff out. We've got benchmarks regarding size reductions so whatever works and makes it smaller I'm game for.

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