AMD was a great module system precisely because the build step was optional. Running the build helped on large projects (for bundling, minifying, etc.), but you could literally deploy your frontend's `src` directory to production and expect it to work as-is. A nice side-effect was that local development only required a simple file http service.
I'm hoping ES module tooling, import maps, etc. get us back to that point.
Indeed. I miss AMD and tooling from that time, it was all pretty straightforward and browser focused. Combined with PHP and you could do some pretty neat things, too.
I'm hoping ES module tooling, import maps, etc. get us back to that point.