Disable polyfills in tranform-runtime to prevent dupplicate polyfills.

[sudo-suhas]

This issue was also discussed here - https://forum.vuejs.org/t/multiple-promise-libraries-being-exported-in-webpack/6610. My thanks to @LinusBorg

Setup

Module	Version
Node.js	6.9.2
npm	4.3
vue-cli	2.8.1
vue	2.1.10
webpack	2.2.1
babel	6.22

Issue details

I have a modified version of the vue-js webpack template which I migrated to webpack 2(some time back) and also made other changes.
I have added es6-promise for use with vuex as it needs a Promise library implementation. When I recently used webpack-bundle-analyzer, I saw something odd. A snippet from the vendor.js:

The promise library polyfill is being exported twice. From the discussion with Linus, we were able to conclude that this is happening due to babel-plugin-transform-runtime which, among other things, also introduces polyfills for things likeMap and Promise. This section from babel-loader README is quite relevant but I failed to solve the issue with the bootstrap suggested. Linus suggested that the babel config could be changed to not add polyfills by default:

"plugins": [
  ["transform-runtime", { "polyfill": false}]
]

Are there any polyfills required by vue, vuex and vue-router? I will also try to get rid of the polyfills and check if something breaks.

[LinusBorg]

Vuex uses Promises, so those have to be polyfilled it one wants to support browsers that don't support them natively yet (read: IE <=11).

[simplesmiler]

A side note, es6-promise and es6.promise.js from core-js are different modules, it's not the same module exported twice.

[sudo-suhas]

I tested my app after removing the polyfills and things seem to be working fine. However, note that I am extensively using lodash and not relying on native modules.

[LinusBorg]

@simplesmiler Yeah we are aware of that.

@sudo most of the stuff that tranform-runtime would might polyfill (especially Promises) is available in modern browsers, but might fail in IE11 or even safari

[limichange]

@LinusBorg
So, if we want to support most browsers, we need import the two promise polyfill ?

[LinusBorg]

No, that's not what I meant. What I mean is:

If we remove the tranform-runtime (or deactivate the automatic polyfill feature it provides), then you, the developer, have to manually keep track of the polyfill-requiring ES6 features you use include those polyfills if you want to make your app work with out-of-date browsers.

I think we can counter-balance that by switching the es2015 preset for babel-preset-env, especially this feature of that preset, so users can easily add the polyfills that their target browser needs. Maybe that could even be a new option in the setup process.

[limichange]

I agree it. babel-preset-env is better.
#501

[sudo-suhas]

Although this doesn't matter if transform-runtime is going to be removed, in a different project, the "polyfill": false directive is not being respected. Could have something to do with this issue but I am not calling super() anywhere.

[LinusBorg]

I'm not sure yet weither we want to remove it completely. the helpers part of the plugin is useful, leaving it ouot could clutter the transpiled modules with duplicated helper code.

[sudo-suhas]

I extracted the stats for my webpack chunks and modules by enabling profile and using this plugin. Can anybody please help me understand why the polyfill: false directive is being ignored? The stats.json file can be uploaded here for interactive visualization.

Babel config

{
    "presets": [
        ["es2015", { "modules": false }],
        "stage-1"
    ],
    "plugins": [
        "lodash",
        "syntax-dynamic-import", [
            "component", [{
                "libraryName": "element-ui",
                "styleLibraryName": "theme-default"
            }]
        ],
        ["transform-runtime", { "polyfill": false }]
    ],
    "comments": false,
    "env": {
        "test": {
            "plugins": ["istanbul"]
        }
    }
}

Compressed stats file - stats.json.zip

Edit: I was able to reproduce the issue of polyfill - false being ignored in a fresh copy of the webpack config.
When async functions are used, transform-runtime adds transformation ./~/babel-runtime/helpers/asyncToGenerator.js which has a dependency ./~/babel-runtime/core-js/promise.js.

Steps to reproduce:

$ vue init webpack vue-test

  This will install Vue 2.x version of the template.

  For Vue 1.x use: vue init webpack#1.0 vue-test

? Project name vue-test
? Project description Playground for Vue!
? Author Suhas Karanth <sudo.suhas@gmail.com>
? Vue build runtime
? Install vue-router? Yes
? Use ESLint to lint your code? No
? Setup unit tests with Karma + Mocha? No
? Setup e2e tests with Nightwatch? No

   vue-cli · Generated "vue-test".

   To get started:
   
     cd vue-test
     npm install
     npm run dev
   
   Documentation can be found at https://vuejs-templates.github.io/webpack

$ cd vue-test/
$ npm install

Modify .babelrc to have ["transform-runtime", { "polyfill": false }].

In main.js:

import Vue from 'vue'
import App from './App'
import router from './router'

async function test() {
    await Promise.resolve(true);
}

/* eslint-disable no-new */
new Vue({
  el: '#app',
  router,
  render: h => h(App)
})

Now run npm run build --report

I have reported this as an issue with babel folks but they will probably take some time to resolve it.

[LinusBorg]

@sudo-suhas

the ignore polyfill: false option should be fixed in babel since March, according to the issue you linked.

But I'm not sure the underlying issue is resolved. we switched to babel-preset-env, but still use transfrom-runtime.

TBH I simply haven't looked into this for months and am not 100% sure what's going on under the hood right now concerning polyfills.

Do you have any further results you can share?