(Un)CommonJS Asynchronous Module Proposal Differences

module-proposal-diffs.md

In both cases below, ID is the exports object of the "id" module.

CommonJS/Modules/Async/A

require.ensure(["id"], function (require) {
    var ID = require("id");
})

• In this example, the "id" module does not need to be loaded before executing this module. Because it uses the require("id") syntax, it is not simple to distinguish it from a dependency that must be preloaded.

UncommonJS/Modules

require.async("id", function (ID) {
}, function (error) {
});

• does not accept multiple identifiers. The presumption is that it will be more common and usable for the loaded module to statically depend on anything you would be tempted to import in the same async call. If this presumption does not pan out (in my own use, it has), it is easy enough to extend this specification with spread/rest (variadic) arguments.

Global patching really should happen outside the purview of the module system

Right. Exactly my point and hence no real need to have the load/execute separate.

So the UncommonJS/Modules variant works for me as long as I can get the canonical id of "id" in the success callback but that can happen via a separate look up method so no problem there.