551558 - let subdirectories of jetpack-sdk/packages/ just be package groupers

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Add-on SDK Graveyard :: General, defect, P3)

Description

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Currently, if you have created several packages, and you want to group them together in the SDK, you have to create a subdirectory of the jetpack-sdk/packages/ directory, give it a package.json file and a packages/ subdirectory, and put your packages into that packages/ subdirectory, for a directory structure that looks like this:

jetpack-sdk/
  packages/
    my-packages/
      package.json
      packages/
        foo-package/
          package.json
        bar-package/
          package.json
        baz-package/
          package.json

I understand the machine model reason for this structure (my-packages/ is treated as itself a package that contains sub-packages). But as an extension/module developer, it would be easier if I could simply use the my-packages/ subdirectory to group my packages together without it having to be a package itself, for a directory structure that looks like this:

jetpack-sdk/
  packages/
    my-packages/
      foo-package/
        package.json
      bar-package/
        package.json
      baz-package/
        package.json

It seems like it should be possible to do this without breaking the current model. The package finder could simply look for a manifest inside my-packages/, treat that directory as a package if the manifest is present, and treat it as a directory grouping packages together (just like jetpack-sdk/packages/) if it's absent.

Comment 1

[Brian Warner [:warner :bwarner]]

I'd especially like it if we didn't have both "packages" and "package.json" in the same directory, since that gets in the way of my tab-completion habit (p-TAB-s-TAB or p-TAB-.-TAB).

Comment 2

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I'd especially like it if we didn't have both "packages" and "package.json" in
> the same directory, since that gets in the way of my tab-completion habit
> (p-TAB-s-TAB or p-TAB-.-TAB).

Indeed, although fixing bug 551570 would be even better, since it would resolve this tab-completion issue for both the "package containing packages" and "directory of packages" cases.

Comment 3

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

The Add-on SDK is no longer a Mozilla Labs experiment and has become a big enough project to warrant its own Bugzilla product, so the "Add-on SDK" product has been created for it, and I am moving its bugs to that product.

To filter bugmail related to this change, filter on the word "looptid".

Comment 4

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

This might be wontfix depending on the outcome of Brian's work on module resolution.

Comment 5

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

WONTFIXing because it's been dead for forever. Reopen if you really want it. :)