Would it be an option to simply have 'gopherjs get' execute 'go get -d tags=js'?

The only advantage, of course, is that 'gopherjs get' is easier to remember.

Yes, that's the alternative 1 that I mentioned:

Make gopherjs get work more reliably by shelling out to go get (should be quite easy).

The only advantage, of course, is that 'gopherjs get' is easier to remember.

For me, it's easier to remember go get -d -tags=js because I use go command often and I know all of its flags and behaviors (and they're super easy to lookup at golang.org/cmd/go).

Having to remember what gopherjs get does exactly would not be advantageous. Maybe other people have a different opinion.

gopherjs get IS currently shelling out:
exec.Command("go", append([]string{"get", "-d"}, pkgs...)...)
Probably only -tags=js is missing.

I see. That should indeed fix the main problem I've reported, but what about the additional ones, like:

Additionally, gopherjs get is missing -u flag and some others.

We can also pass those through to the go command.

gopherjs get is for convenience. It now does exactly what you described above:

# gopherjs get import/path
go get -d -tags=js import/path
gopherjs install import/path

I see no reason to remove it, it's just a few lines of code, nothing fancy. If someone needs more flags, then it's probably best to just fall back to the separate commands. Do you think we need to make this option more obvious?

If someone needs more flags, then it's probably best to just fall back to the separate commands. Do you think we need to make this option more obvious?

I think the help/usage string for gopherjs get should say exactly that.