Eloquent JS

Chapter 10 - Modules

• Packages - Chunk of code that can be distributed (copied and installed). It may contain one or more modules and has information about what other packages it depends on.
• NPM: An online service and a program that helps you install and manage packages.
• Evaluating data as code:
  • Special operator eval - which will execute a string in the current scope. eval("var x = 2") creates a var from a string.
  • Function operator - Wraps code in a function value that has its own scope and won’t do odd things with other scopes.
• CommonJS - The main concept of CommonJS is a function called require. When you call this with the module name of a dependency, it makes sure the module is loaded and returns its interface.

const ordinal = require("ordinal");
const {days, months} = require("date-names");

• The interface of ordinal is a single function, whereas date-names exports an object containing multiple things.

exports.formatDate = function(date, format) {
  return format.replace(/YYYY|M(MMM)?|Do?|dddd/g, tag => {
    ...
  });
};

• Using it:

const {formatDate} = require("./format-date");

Defining require

require.cache = Object.create(null);

function require(name) {
  if (!(name in require.cache)) {
    let code = readFile(name); => JS does not have, but browser and Node.js have
    let module = {exports: {}};
    require.cache[name] = module;
    let wrapper = Function("require, exports, module", code);
    wrapper(require, module.exports, module);
  }
  return require.cache[name].exports;
}

• The interface of ordinal is not an object, but a function.
• By defining require, exports, and module as parameters, the loader makes sure that these bindings are available in the module’s scope.

ECMAScript modules

• CommonJS modules are fine, but they are a duct-tape hack.
• ES modules:

import ordinal from "ordinal";
import {days, months} from "date-names";

export function formatDate(date, format) { /* ... */ }

• Imports happen before a module’s script starts running - this means import declarations may not appear inside functions or blocks.

Module design

• The best way to learn the value of well-structured design is to read or work on a lot of programs what works and what doesn’t. Do not assume that a painful mess is “just the way it is”. You can improve the structure of almost everything by putting more thought into it.
• Focused modules that compute values are applicable in a wider range of programs than bigger modules that perform complicated actions with side effects.
• Relatedly, stateful objects are sometimes useful, but if something can be done with a function, then use a function. Several of the INI file readers on NPM provide an interface style that requires you to first create an object, then load the file into your object, and then use specialized methods to get at the results.
  • OOP - instead of making a single function call and moving on, you have to perform the ritual of moving your object through various states.

What is the difference between Subject and BehaviorSubject?

Reference

• A BehaviorSubject holds one value which it emits immediately. A subject on the other hand, doesn’t hold a value.
• Subject - the subscribers will only receive the upcoming value, while in BehaviorSubject, the subscribers will receive the previous and also upcoming value.
• BehaviorSubject is like ReplaySubject with a buffer size of 1.

BehaviorSubject vs Observable?