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  • Object.defineModule()

Object.defineModule()

# Kevin Curtis (16 years ago)

For ES6 syntax/semantics re modules how about:

const mymod = Object.defineModule({
    url: "http://www.acme.com/mymod.js",
    otherProp: "...",
    ...
});

Or if the module source is a string of ES code:

var mymod_str = "var x = 4; ...";
const mymod = Object.defineModule({
    source: mymod_str,
    otherProp: "...",
    ...
});

Or if the module is an AST (JsonML?):

var mymod_ast = ["Program", [ ... ]];
const mymod = Object.defineModule({
    ast: mymod_ast,
    otherProp: "...",
    ...
});

This term defineModule makes sense if the act of 'defining' a module in an environment is considered from the module user perspective. Fits in with the meta-api approach.

The parameters of the proposed require() function are subsumed into the properties of the object passed to defineModule(). Maybe defineModule() - if implemented natively - can offer the 'hermetic eval' sandbox functionality that module dev's are after. Syntax sugar - import mymod; - can be implemented with macros.

Also, if a list of module url's (and strings/ast's) could be passed to defineModule() then maybe a shared 'global' environment could be passed as well:

// with destructuring
const [mymod, mymod1] = Object.defineModule({
    url:[...,...],
    env:"http://www.acme.com/myglobal.js"
})