Foreword

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It’s a funny story how I started with webpack. Before getting addicted to JavaScript, I also developed in Java. I tried GWT (Google Web Toolkit) in that time. GWT is a Java-to-JavaScript Compiler, which has a great feature: code splitting↗. I liked this feature and missed it in existing JavaScript tooling. I opened an issue↗ to an existing module bundler, but it did not go forward. Webpack was born.

Somehow the Instagram frontend team discovered an early version of webpack and started to use it for instagram.com. Pete Hunt, Facebook employee managing the Instagram web team, gave the first significant talk about webpack↗ at OSCON 2014. The talk boosted the popularity of webpack. One of the reasons for adoption of webpack by Instagram was code splitting.

I have been following this book since its early stages. It was once a combined React and webpack book. It has grown since then and become a book of its own filled with content.

Juho is an important part of the webpack documentation team for the webpack documentation, so he knows best what complements the official documentation. He has used this knowledge to create a book that supplies you with a deep understanding of webpack and teaches you to use the tool to its full potential.

Tobias Koppers