Node v20 support

[mcollina]

It would be great if this provided support for Node.js v20, so one that needs to support both can use this.

I'm currently getting this error:

➜  node --import="amaro/register" test.ts

node:internal/modules/run_main:128
    triggerUncaughtException(
    ^
TypeError [Error]: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'endsWith')
    at load (/Users/matteo/repos/fgh/node_modules/amaro/dist/index.js:512:14)
    at nextLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:868:28)
    at Hooks.load (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:451:26)
    at MessagePort.handleMessage (node:internal/modules/esm/worker:196:24)
    at [nodejs.internal.kHybridDispatch] (node:internal/event_target:831:20)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> (node:internal/per_context/messageport:23:28)

Node.js v20.18.3

[marco-ippolito]

Unfortunately it's not as straight forward as it seems.
Amaro as loader is build on top on node with the assumption that node recognizes that is a typescript commonjs or module.

amaro/src/transform-loader.ts

Line 15 in 05679c1

if (format?.endsWith("-typescript")) {

v20 would require to rewrite the module detection, also tests are run with experimental snapshot testing and globs which are not available

[paulmillr]

@marco-ippolito globs are easy: tons of modules. What's "experimental snapshot testing" and how useful is it?

node recognizes that is a typescript commonjs or module

How much code does this take to implement in nodejs v24?

[marco-ippolito]

Glob and snapshot testing can be substituted by libraries not a big deal.
For the actual compatibility it requires a way to detect if a module is typescript and strip it/transform it. Its not hard per see but there are a few edge cases.

[paulmillr]

Sounds great. Let me know how we could help. Typescript support is one huge thing which improves lives of devs.

---

An an OSS maintainer, i've been frustrated with slow node.js development for a long time. It kinda feels like nothing is going on. I want to use something, then I see that it would only be availble in stable LTS versions in 1-2 years, I end up not using it. Painful - especially after deno and bun started innovating.

Recently, node decided to backport "importing esm in cjs" to v20 — this finally means we can start using ESM-only packages in every major LTS node! Huge help. So, for something as small as ESM modules, nodejs core has actually been one of the main things slowing it down.

[marco-ippolito]

I tried to implement it, the snapshot testing can be replaced by @mcollina snap. The biggest issue is that its quite unreliable to try to detect the syntax of a .ts file.
It would probably require the detect ESM syntax api that Node.js uses internally but since Node.js v20 is maintainance it cannot land. If someone wants to give it a try I'll be happy to review

[alexsch01]

Seems like nodejs/node#59551 would allow this to work, due to nodejs/node#55590

Edit: nevermind

[marco-ippolito]

not really whats missing is esm detection, there are some hacks around (like trying to require/import and check the error)

[marco-ippolito]

Given Node v20 is going EOL in 4 months I think this is not gonna happen