Keyword bikeshed

[mindplay-dk]

• import is a verb, asset is a noun - it doesn't sound like a directive, and they don't pair well.

• The resulting symbol isn't the actual asset in the first place - only a reference to it.

• Scripts (not just assets) could potentially be imported too, if for some reason you want to preprocess a script.

I suggest resolve as the keyword.

This will pair better with import, and more precisely explains how this will merely resolve the location of an asset, or any resource.

[stiff]

ref or full reference may be better, because resolve is already used in Promises

[mindplay-dk]

resolve is already used in Promises

Resolve is also used in require.resolve, so the terminology and meaning is well known and used in this domain already.

[mindplay-dk]

The written spec actually uses the term resolve extensively.

[stiff]

In the last example resolve is more in like Promise.resolve. Given a reference it resolves it (await's) to an asset itself.

If one would want to catch the loading exception then it should be written as
await resolve(Foo).catch(Bar)

or

await reference(Foo).catch(Bar)

?

[mindplay-dk]

Well, importing an asset resolves the resource and returns a Promise which then resolves.

I can see why that's confusing.

Another verb that might work is link.