Speeding up browserify with a huge lib. Using https://github.com/ForbesLindesay/browserify-middleware with Express.

faster.js

// Each of these takes just a few milliseconds

app.get('/js/main.js', browserify('./public/js/main.js', {
  external: ['three'],
	detectGlobals: false
}));

app.get('/js/three.js', browserify(['three'], {
	noParse: ['three'],  // doesn't parse to look for global vars OR calls to require; just includes as-is
	cache: true,         // instructs browser to cache, even in dev, because this won't be changing
	debug: false         // no source map
}));

naive.js

// main.js requires three, and it took about 6 seconds to build

app.get('/js/main.js', browserify('./public/js/main.js'));