node-irc going forward

[osslate]

node-irc has been stagnating for quite some time now. I've recently been appointed maintainer of the project as @martynsmith can't find the time to look after the project.

Currently, I'm working through the backlog of issues and pull requests to find ones that can be merged in without creating backwards-incompatibilities. Two pages of open issues have been dealt with thus far, the rest will be dealt with soon. As soon as this is done and the release can be deemed stable, I'll release a new patch version on npm.

Issues and pull requests that introduce changes - requiring projects built on node-irc to be modified - will be rejected. The next minor release of node-irc will be a rewrite, introducing an entirely new, cleaned-up API. These developments can be tracked in the development branch.

The aims of this rewrite are the following:

• Creating a cleaner interface to deal with IRC, using newer node APIs wherever applicable (including Streams).
• Making IRCv3 support a first class citizen. As an active member of the IRCv3 working group, my knowledge of the specifications are extensive, and with every major and modern IRCd supporting IRCv3, developers can avail of new features straight away. You can see what's planned for these changes over here.
• Making sure the library is well-tested. Only 100% test coverage will do. There seems to be a lot of bugs in the current release judging by the issues, and whilst keeping in mind that IRC is at times an unreliable protocol to deal with, testing removes a lot of possible errors.
• Staying on top of pull requests and issues, so the project doesn't experience half year bursts to clear the pile.
• Modularising chunks of the library when possible to fit in with Node's ecosystem. I've already written (possibly) the most efficient IRC parser in JavaScript with IRCv3 message-tags support, irc-message, and this can be thrown into applications wherever it suits. If it's possible to split out the library into other modules in a logical way, go for it.

I'm planning to (eventually) have the first major release of node-irc on npm as soon as everything is settled.

I encourage people that use the library to comment on this issue with any ideas, concerns and general feedback on the planned changes.

[katanacrimson]

P.sure that a rewrite would fall under a major version update according to semver. :)

[osslate]

@damianb From http://semver.org/

Major version zero (0.y.z) is for initial development. Anything may change at any time. The public API should not be considered stable.

[katanacrimson]

oh, dammit, did node-irc not make the 1.0 release? I thought it had..

[benatkin]

@damianb no, the major version numbers have to do with APIs. You can rewrite everything and if you keep the original API, the major version number doesn't need to be updated. Also, I am glad that it hasn't hit 1.0, because that would not be an accurate reflection of the state of the project.

[Trinitas]

Kinda sad i have to rewrite my website... why not have someone update the old node irc?
But i'm little confused, is it going to be updated?

[morenoh149]

right? haven't seen any activity since june now. Has there been any progress made? How do I start contributing?

[Trinitas]

I think the project is dead again

[osslate]

Sorry for not having worked on it much. During the summer I had little time to work on side projects, and I'm currently in school full time, but I'd love it if someone familiar with the IRC protocol could also step up to the table to help me out with the rewrite, since I can't dedicate large chunks of time to it!

[morenoh149]

First off what was the rationale for a rewrite in the first place? Secondly we need to break the problem down into manageable chunks. I have no experience with the irc protocol. I'd just like to see this module become finished.

[jirwin]

Why not start with proposals for the new design?

[Trinitas]

And why not let us Update the old build and make it use streams like you want for it to be modern. Also your irc-message code can be implemented and everyone should be happy

[morenoh149]

related https://github.com/oftn/oftn-bot inspiration or a reason to abandon this project? dunno. that project seems to do what I want (build a sophisticated irc bot with javascript)

[aurium]

@morenoh149 +1 "break the problem down into manageable chunks"

@expr Your proposal for this project are really nice. I believe you must help the community to help you. ;-)

[ghost]

Hey, @expr. You've got a number of people here who are interested in helping, but can't. Would you please consider opening things up to those who have sent good pull requests so they can help move node-irc forward? Thanks!

[morenoh149]

@apeiron try emailing him. Try all social media accounts.

[Trinitas]

@expr please reopen 0.3 branch for pull requests. many people have already abandon this project and it starts to die

And everyone that wants the same should say it. More the better

[martynsmith]

Hi there,

So originally I opened up the project to someone in the hopes they could
make progress when I clearly didn't have time for it.

Clearly that hasn't worked, so if there's a volunteer, I'm happy to try
this again with a new person (or group of people)?

On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Trinitas [email protected] wrote:

@expr https://github.com/expr please reopen 0.3 branch for pull
requests. many people have already abandon this project and it starts to die

And everyone that wants the same should say it. More the better

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#238 (comment)
.

[ghost]

Consider this my volunteering. I don't have the deep IRC knowledge of @expr but I'm sure that enough of us can get things right.

[jirwin]

I'd gladly help out when I can. I use node-irc actively on https://github.com/jirwin/treslek and would love to see it advance.

[martynsmith]

Okay @apeiron - you should now have access to things :-)

Feel free to contact me (although as you can see, I'm a bit shit at replying). The best way to contact me in all honesty is Ned on irc.dollyfish.net.nz #blah

[ghost]

Great! Thanks. It'd be helpful if people here could look over my
pull req and offer comments as I'll be doing with the others.

On 01/05/2015 08:49 PM, Martyn Smith wrote:

Okay @apeiron https://github.com/apeiron - you should now have
access to things :-)

Feel free to contact me (although as you can see, I'm a bit shit at
replying). The best way to contact me in all honesty is Ned on
irc.dollyfish.net.nz #blah

—
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#238 (comment).

[morenoh149]

great now we can get the pull requests merged :)
feel free to write up a list and delegate

[ghost]

@morenoh149 I seem to be the only one granted collab access, so that means I get to do the work. :) I think for the pull reqs most of it is going to be testing and making sure things actually work before merging.

[jirwin]

how do we feel about coordinating in....IRC somewhere? ##node-irc on freenode perhaps?

[ghost]

So obvious. :) Sounds great. I'm there, @jirwin is there. Come join us!

On 01/05/2015 09:47 PM, Justin Gallardo wrote:

how do we feel about coordinating in....IRC somewhere? ##node-irc on
freenode perhaps?

—
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#238 (comment).

[Trinitas]

So what's gonna happen with the 0.3 old branch and the expr new version?

[jirwin]

@Trinitas In an effort to make master always deployable, I've gone ahead and moved the 0.3.x branch back to master and copied the rewrite to the expr-rewrite branch. This will probably cause some issues with forks and pull requests, but I think it is the best move going forward.

I've written a wiki page at https://github.com/martynsmith/node-irc/wiki/0.3.x-branch-debacle to help with the transition.

[aurium]

Is there a detailed check list for 3.0 or a tag on desired issues for 3.0?

[Trinitas]

maybe time to close some issues? some of them are from 2011
Or at least write to them and see if the problem still exist