Merging various projects (js-xls, js-xlsx, js-harb)

[SheetJSDev]

This discussion has come up various times, and every time I've been hesitant due to size constraints, but it's becoming clear that the separate projects are slowing development.

Even worse, much of the code is duplicated in both projects, so merging would slim down the total size in a clean way (as opposed to various ad-hoc solutions). FYI The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back involved style parsing in XLS, which requires a stripped down version of the XLSX style parsing code (brilliant design on Microsoft's part to embed a ZIP file within the container).

Since github has no way to indicate that we are merging the projects, we will have to do it manually.

Questions:

1. The XLS, XLSX and HARB objects have the same interface, so we can fold all of the logic into one of the projects or create a new project. Which makes more sense?

2. Should the build process create separate scripts for the individual formats (an xls.js for the XLS format, xlsx.js etc)?

3. What should happen to the node modules and the other repos?

Pulling @elad @nathanathan @notatestuser

[nathanathan]

I haven't been involved with this project lately, so I don't think my opinion should be given any weight here. However, as long as I'm here, I think the build process should create a single script for all formats because I suspect that most people who want their application to read xls files also want it to read xlsx and the reverse, so requiring multiple scripts would be an inconvenience most of the time. Of course, generating bare-bones scripts for single formats as an additional option for power users wouldn't hurt.

[wonever]

Sorry for intruding. I tried to combine the libraries meaningfully but the browser script is a mess. A combined library would be excellent!

[elad]

Sorry for the delay, my opinions:

1. The XLS, XLSX and HARB objects have the same interface, so we can fold all of the logic into one of the projects or create a new project. Which makes more sense?

Fold them into js-xlsx. It's the "latest" format and the most popular of the three.

2. Should the build process create separate scripts for the individual formats (an xls.js for the XLS format, xlsx.js etc)?

I agree with @nathanathan - one script is easier to work with, power users can have custom builds. This is very common in many front-end libraries.

3. What should happen to the node modules and the other repos?

Keep them with a deprecation notice and a link to the folded repository.

[SystemParadox]

I fully support this effort. Would make life much easier.

Note: npm modules can be marked as deprecated with a link to their replacement. See npm deprecate https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/deprecate

Thanks!

[SheetJSDev]

Resolved, everything has been folded into xlsx