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I love Javascript and TypeScript, but with all the technologies gravitating around JS, the setup for a project gets clunkier and clunkier.

But overall, loving the direction JS is taking.

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I hear this a lot, but everything can be handled with a single tool: Webpack. Even a TS project can compile with Webpack and all of its assets, minification and compression needs can be handled in the same file. While you’re at it you can set up a development server with source mapping. Just take an afternoon to learn Webpack and be done with complaining about setup overhead. I set up a multi-stage build for TS Project References but that’s only necessary if you want to share code between the front and back ends. Aside from that you should only need a single build step.

> take an afternoon to learn we pack

If only it was that easy. The weeks I’ve spent hunting down webpack specific bugs because the plugins don’t always quite work with typescript transformations and source maps...

If you have spent multiple weeks on a Webpack bug then you are not trying to fix it. You could have asked Stack Overflow over and over again in a matter of weeks.

There are many options for source maps due to their performance overhead and the docs describe then in detail and provide a guide for when to use each one.

And then another afternoon every week trying to figure out why Webpack is breaking this time. Many week I spend more time babysitting the environment tools than actually writing code.

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