JS modules can't be imported with a plain script tag.

Script type=module doesn't work?

Not if you want to support the 0.2% market share that IE 11 has.

That's true, but also a trade-off that is a perfectly valid engineering choice for many or even most teams.

HTMX 2 stopped IE support, so that shouldn't be an issue.

we don't :)

we want to support the traditional script tag w/ a src attribute and nothing else

Why?

idk just like it better that way

Chiming in to say modules are awesome and you shouldn't be so scared.

I'm not scared, I just want people to be able to include htmx on their page the same way, for example, good ol'jQuery is included.

We generate esm and cjs modules for people who want to use htmx in that manner though:

https://github.com/bigskysoftware/htmx/tree/master/dist

you can define import maps in a separate <script> tag and reuse the module name elsewhere

sure, but I wanted the same experience of, say, jquery, where you just drop in a script tag w/ a src attribute and it just works

an aesthetic decision, I suppose

Depending on the import tree depth, it significantly increases latency.

(Which is why bundlers still exist.)