Add support for ES6 import syntax

This might be a long shot but I’d like to see this in browserify.

The ES6 module syntax has a few nice features compared to commonJS require method, namely bindings and cyclic dependencies.

Since these things are in the ES6 standard it seems reasonable to work them into browserify too!

Note that just using a ES6 to ES5 transpiler wouldn’t work in this case because these are cross module concerns. For instance, babelify is only able to transpile import foo from 'foo' to var foo = require('foo') at file-level, but this does not allow cyclic dependencies.

The Esperanto project has a nice way of handling things but lacks too many features to be a valid replacement for browserify.

Is there any possibility to see support for ES6 import syntax come to browserify?

[mattdesl]

For the mean time, I’ve created a browserify plugin that:

• Adds .mjs extension to browserify so that it takes precedence over .js
• Use "module" field in package.json (when "browser" is not specified)
• Transform ES Module import/export syntax into CommonJS so that it can be consumed & used by browserify

See here: https://github.com/mattdesl/esmify

[ghost]

I’ve been waiting for this feature to land in node first so browserify can match the semantics properly. I’m also concerned that if browserify implements a default es6 import mechanism while node doesn’t have one, it will needlessly fragment browser and server ecosystems.