Disable certain unused modules on build

[nicolasfranck]

As a

developer

I want

a way to reduce the built project size by removing unused components.

For example, we do not use the youtube or 3D components, but they
are part of the generated output. I know that all modules are exported
in separated files, but I am not sure if deleting them is safe,
or leads to internal loading errors. Also not always sure which ones
to delete.

[demiankatz]

Based on my (admittedly quite limited) understanding of Webpack, I believe that modules should only be downloaded by the user when they are actually needed. The problem is defining what "actually needed" means, since this is based on Webpack's analysis of the code (and particularly the way modules require one another). If everything is perfectly designed, and Webpack works perfectly, then you should be able to delete bundles for unwanted modules, and no one will ever notice the difference. (Probably the best way to achieve this would be to delete the unwanted source folders prior to the build, to ensure that Webpack doesn't output anything related to those modules, rather than trying to figure out which files to delete after the fact). However, it's rare for everything to be perfect, so it's very possible that there are some interdependencies that can't be so easily broken (I would imagine, for example, it's possible that the bootstrapping code includes enough references to all of the modules that Webpack would fuss if you deleted things). In any case, it might be interesting to do some experiments and see what happens, but there's probably not a totally easy and straightforward answer to this at present.

[demiankatz]

I would definitely be interested, at least theoretically, in having a UV architecture that was more pluggable, so modules could be dropped in and out seamlessly without the need to explicitly reference them in bootstrapping logic. But I'm not really sure how we could achieve that in a Typescript project. (I have a lot more experience with PHP architecture, which has a significantly different set of capabilities and limitations).