UMD
UMD (Universal Module Definition) is a JavaScript module format that allows code to work in multiple environments, such as CommonJS (Node.js), AMD (RequireJS), and as a global variable in browsers. It provides a wrapper pattern to detect the module system at runtime and export the module appropriately, enabling cross-platform compatibility for libraries and applications.
Developers should use UMD when creating JavaScript libraries that need to support both server-side (Node.js) and client-side (browser) usage, or when targeting environments with different module systems like AMD and CommonJS. It is particularly useful for open-source libraries to ensure broad compatibility without requiring users to configure build tools specifically for their environment.