Full-stack (meta?) framework / CLI #251
Description
The Crank.js documentation website is being built with some hacked-together code which uses ts-node, nodemon, ESBuild’s JavaScript API, a funny little router, etc. It would be nice to package this behind a CLI.
I have been putting this off for a long time because of open questions of API design, not wanting to reinvent the wheel, and the fact that bundling/transpilation continue to evolve... but perhaps it is time, especially as I rewrite the docs to handle stuff like Vite / etc. I think it is possible to do it now, especially with ESBuild. Maybe we could even put the CLI directly in the Crank package. (probably not a good idea)
Naming ideas:
- scale
scale develop(@b9g/scale) - captain
captain develop(@b9g/captain) - capn
capn dev(@b9g/capn) - something to do with gears? Web spiders?
- I like the idea of capitalizing on c-based names
shovel(I keep hearing “sell shovels” bandied about).
The parts of the framework so far:
- Basic
path-to-regexpbased router that doesn’t do much. - Client-side bundling/transpilation
- A way to build client-side code using ESBuild using server-side components, on the fly in development.
- A way to serve static assets.
- A way to run the router with an array to create a static build.
- A janky development server that goes down to new requests any time there’s a change.
Attack plan:
Development should be oriented around commands:
-
x develop(orx serve?) -
x static -
x init
once a pretty and solid directory structure is discovered -
x buildandx prod(maybe rethink the names at this level)
The meta-framework will likely need to provide server-side components like the following:
<HTML5 />Does the weird lil bit where you have to DOCTYPE. Maybe we could pass in our currentStorageabstraction here, or it could be a separate component.<Script />,<Style />,<Link />ESBuild-backed replacements for equivalents. These components automatically build/transpile the referenced files.<Client />/<Island />??? A way to render stuff client-side. Could do stuff like generate renderer.hydrate code directly. May beid-based. I don’t like Island terminology but it fits with the captain nautical theme.<Head />,<Body />Components to coordinate between user code and HTML5. Could inject critical scripts top bottom head body. Or this could be done other components like<CriticalScripts />. Honestly a lot of ways to design the API.<LiveReloadScript />for when you want to inject live-reloading or whatever
TODO: Write hypothetical Getting Started docs.