Suggested Workflow

[GretaCB]

While working on a new header-only library from this skeleton (gzip), wasn't completely sure how we want to suggest creating a separate library when using this skeleton as a foundation. This ticket is also relevant to the workflow we'll want to suggest when using node-cpp-skel.

Possibilities

• Fork: If we suggesting forking, there should be a easy way to remove skel's github history to start from scratch and create a completely separate copy with its own history.
• Branch: There would be no intention of merging custom code/a separate lib into master, so this doesnt seem like the right way to go.
• ?

I'll do a bit more research on how other projects/developers have done this.

cc @springmeyer @mapsam

[mapsam]

If we're interested in a really quick solution for creating a new project from scratch, I've had great success with cookiecutter in the past. Possibly too abstract for us, though, since these libraries also exist as examples, rather than purely as templates?

[GretaCB]

Per chat with @mapsam and @springmeyer , we can try writing a script that preps the skel to be converted into a brand new project/repo.

• start with git init . per https://git-scm.com/docs/git-init#_examples
• remove already-existing /src files (other than module.cpp and module-utils.cpp)
• reset gyp target array
• remove comments (perhaps there is an already-existing lib that does this by looking for a specific comment syntax/symbol or we can write our own lib to do this)
• have the user follow the usual "connect it to github" steps, per http://kbroman.org/github_tutorial/pages/init.html

It could provide some of these as a set of opt-in options (ex remove-comments=true/false)

[mapsam]

@GretaCB awesome

remove comments (perhaps there is an already-existing lib that does this by looking for a specific comment syntax/symbol or we can write our own lib to do this)

Looks like gcc has a build-in command that may do this, according to SO https://stackoverflow.com/a/2394040

[GretaCB]

Great find @mapsam !

Also, didnt mean to bypass the templating idea. Did a quick search, I think the tricky part will be finding an already-existing cookiecutter tool specifically for C++ and/or Node, though ideally for Node Addons. But perhaps we can take some of the functionality and features of https://cookiecutter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/readme.html and write them into the "liftoff" script?

[GretaCB]

Nevermind my point above.

omg 🎉 https://cookiecutter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/readme.html#categories-of-cookiecutters

[GretaCB]

Phase 1 merged #29. Keeping ticket open for further thoughts/discussion/iterations.

[springmeyer]

also just found http://yeoman.io, which appears to be a popular nodejs way of scaffolding a project with templates. https://github.com/duivvv/generator-module-boilerplate is an example of using it.