Cachebusting is possible with systemjs. Looks like this project is a good start:
https://github.com/stealjs/cache-bust
Here's a quick-n-dirty fix for this same problem when working with Aurelia:
https://github.com/aurelia/framework/issues/94#issuecomment-...
Here's where SystemJS devs are discussing adding cachebusting:
what is your opinion of webpack in general though ?
Also, please look at the other responses, bundling deps seems to be the definitive answer to how to speed up JSPM. Though of course your cache busting issue is separate.
Is this not baked into every build tool out there ? How does one take care of caching while serving assets .. or is the general philosophy of JS right now around SPA (so dont care to cache) ?
JSPM just doesn't take a built-in stance on it (as of now, as I noted there is a ticket to get it included), but it certainly is configurable enough to allow you to add cache busting (by changing the loader). Not trying to apologize for JSPM -- it would certainly be better if they had some sort of cache busting option that was easily available and obvious.
I think the thought here is that when you're ready to push to production, and you build your actual bundle, you name that file whatever you need to to bust caches.
I ended up compiling the 3rd party dependencies into a single bundle, then letting JSPM run only on my app's code.