Re: Packaging mathjax and other javascript libraries

[Arun Isaac <arunisaac@systemreboot.net>]

Ricardo Wurmus writes:

>> The patch I submitted simply extracts the mathjax tarball into
>> /share/webapps/mathjax. Arch/Parabola use this kind of "webapps"
>> path. But, Debian puts it in /share/javascript/mathjax. So far, we have
>> not adopted any convention for Guix. What path convention should we
>> adopt? Is it necessary to distinguish between webapps and non-webapps,
>> like Arch/Parabola do, or is it better to just put it in a javascript
>> folder like Debian does? Are there other alternative approaches?
>
> I would be in favour of doing it the Debian way.  It’s difficult to draw
> a line between a web application and a JavaScript library, so I’d rather
> not have to make a decision like that each time we package something
> written in JavaScript.

I agree. Arch/Parabola even put packages like cgit and roundcube in a webapps
folder. However, in Guix, we don't treat these applications specially,
and I think we should continue that way.

>> Should we have any prefix in the package name for javascript libraries
>> such as mathjax? Apparently, Debian uses the "libjs-" prefix. Also, it
>> might be a good idea to have a separate file
>> (gnu/packages/javascript.scm) for these javascript libraries.
>
> So far we have separated packages according to their purpose.  There are
> a few exceptions, such as python.scm, which would best be split up.  If
> possible I’d rather have JavaScript libraries in modules that indicate
> what their purpose is.  General purpose frameworks, on the other hand,
> could very well fit in a javascript.scm.

I think mathjax being a kind of library, should be put in a
javascript.scm with a "javascript-" prefix. This is similar to the way
we treat python libraries with a "python-" prefix, emacs
packages/libraries with a "emacs-" prefix, etc. WDYT?

Pjotr Prins writes:

> We also have clojurescript, purescript, elm and others to consider -
> even if they generate JS. Is JS going to be our object format?

That's an interesting question. Should we even install the source code
after compiling these various languages to javascript? I am in favor of
only installing the compiled javascript to some path like
share/javascript/projectname/