Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

I'm not a fan of Require-type systems because they introduce additional runtime behavior. With the proper dependency graph tools available at compile time, we could remove the need for AMD completely. This will reduce client overhead and boilerplate. (Granted, AMD boilerplate will be converted into a dependency graph spec. But it would be there regardless, and I am of the opinion that this is a superior form.)

Exciting times ahead...

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#5

Post by CGamesPlay » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

Cool! I have two questions: does this support watching files to regenerate them?

Second, one of the main features from my similar project (npm install webapp-builder) is appending a socket.io connection to generated HTML to force a browser refresh when files have finished building. I view webapp-builder as too monolithic, so I'm curious how difficult it would be to implement a similar feature in Fez?

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#6

Post by mmwtsn » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:40 PM UTC

Looks interesting. A note to the author: that post is very difficult to read on mobile. Setting a width on your container will go a long way to improve readability (e.g. .wrapper { max-width: 90%; margin: 0 auto; }).

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#7

Post by mikewhy » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:47 PM UTC

How does this compare to something like Brunch? http://brunch.io/

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#8

Post by isaacb » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:51 PM UTC

mmwtsn wrote: post #6

Looks interesting. A note to the author: that post is very difficult to read on mobile. Setting a width on your container will go a long way to improve readability (e.g. .wrapper { max-width: 90%; margin: 0 auto; }).

Fixed! Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#9

Post by dgallagher » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:54 PM UTC

isaacb wrote: post #3

pencilcode wrote: post #2

BTW, fezes is faeces in portuguese ;)

Hah! I should probably change it to Fezzes then.

Also, there's a popular video game also named "Fez" which uses the same fez hat in it. It probably won't lead to confusion since the game isn't a file based build tool, though it'll be something you might have to indirectly compete with in search results. :)

Re: Show HN: Fez, a file-based build tool for JavaScript

#10

Post by isaacb » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 5:56 PM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #5

Cool! I have two questions: does this support watching files to regenerate them? Second, one of the main features from my similar project (npm install webapp-builder) is appending a socket.io connection to generated HTML to force a browser refresh when files have finished building. I view webapp-builder as too monolithic, so I'm curious how difficult it would be to implement a similar feature in Fez?

1) Since it only does the work that needs to be done, you can safely 'watch node fez.js' and if there have been no file changes, nothing will be done! This won't work on Windows, of course, but then I'm not sure if anything else in Fez works on Windows anyway. I'll have to get that going here soon.

2) You can do pretty much whatever sort of transformation you want in an operation. In fact, if you want I can take a look at your code and implement that socket.io appending feature with Fez myself just to show how it can be done.