RequireJS

Abstract

While JavaScript now plays a far more significant role in web applications, the HTML5 specification (and therefore modern browsers) does not specify a means to detect dependency relationships among scripts, or how to load script dependencies in a particular order. In the simplest scenario, scripts are typically referenced in page markup with simple <script> tags. These tags are evaluated, loaded, and executed in order, which means that common libraries or modules are typically included first, then application scripts follow. (For example, a page might load jQuery and then load an application script that uses jQuery to manipulate the Document Object Model [DOM].) Simple web pages with easily traceable dependency hierarchies fit well into this model, but as the complexity of a web application increases, the number of application scripts will grow and the web of dependencies may become difficult, if not impossible, to manage.