my-npm-boilerplate

Distinguishing marks of a good module

A.K.A. Unix's "leanest thing under 200loc that actually works"

I have to admit something... in the past, I used to evaluate packages by looking at the Github page to see when it was last updated. If I see something that is more recent, it gets my tick of approval. Bad Chris! Now substack doesn't do that. He just wants the most dependable, easy to understand and smallest module he can find (or make) to fulfil his objective. In other words, he subscribes to the UNIX philosophy.

[...]

To him, it's about taking the time to understand the abstractions.

substack drafts a new module

• write a lot pseudoJS to "abstractify" the problem (added by me)
• substack codes as usual:
  • Uses console.dir alot to inspect & debug
  • Didn't TDD - creates an example.js that requires the module and tests its functionality
  • Codes in vim & switches to a terminal every so often to run the example.js script
• If he notices an opportunity to modularise, he immediately moves the function into a new file & changes the function declaration to module.exports = ... (When I say immediately, I really do mean immediately).
• When he's happy with the module, npm install tape tap
• Refactors the example.js file as a set of tests (see below).
• Writes README.markdown from scratch with introduction, API documentation & license (API documentation is quick & easy to write when you have small modules).
• Runs pkginit to create package.json.
• Create GitHub repo and npm publish
• Add travis and/or testling-ci github hooks as appropriate (added by me)

1 + 2 = 3 philosophy and mathematics are agreed on this proof

PARAMETERS CODE 1/4 2 YEARS!!! TURTLES ALL THE WAY UP LOST

• abstract problem

• know which npm module(s) to use

• know which npm module(s) to write

• solve problem

• explore and get inspired; do a lot of online reading

• design stuff

  • think of cool, new things to make
  • draw & write
  • spec ideas
  • seek opinions of others

• cobble and ship code prodigiously

• read books on

  • javascript
  • programming
  • math; number theory

• take math classes at OCC

• i can do anything i want using npm!

• but study how "they" do "the" anything

• at infinite

• real world thing

• modeled philsophically

• mathematical precision

• proofed in javascript

• you want it

• does 1 thing

• completely open-sourceable

• "turtle"

• learn do

• quickest path to a README

• events

• streams

• url

• path

• querystring