Difference between "import" and "imports" in GJS

Question

gjs.guide recommends writing GJS import statements like this:

const Gtk = imports.gi.Gtk;

while most actual code that I see, and also the built-in Gnome Builder templates have this:

import Gtk from 'gi://Gtk';

What's the difference between the two? When should I prefer one over the other?

Answer 1

After bumming around in the gjs repository for a while I've stumbled upon this file: doc/ESModules.md

In it they refer to "imports" as the legacy way of importing modules. From what I understood from that document:

• imports predates import (it was a way of describing modules in GJS before ES actually had modules)
• imports gives you all vars from the module, while import only gives you things that were explicitly exported with the export keyword;
• so far you can use both mechanisms, but import should be preferred for new code.