How does spago use bower?

[jgarte]

Hi,

Would someone be able to give me a high level overview of how spago depends on and uses bower?

I'm currently reading Bower.hs.

I would just like to have a big picture understanding (forest for the trees) so that I can be more informed reading the source code.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[f-f]

@jgarte what's your use case?

Spago uses Bower in various ways when running the spago version command, in preparation for publishing a library. This is the most legacy part of the codebase and we're not interested in fixing it, as the new Registry is about to ship with a new publishing method that doesn't depend on Bower.

[jgarte]

@jgarte what's your use case?

Hi @f-f , I'm a GNU GUIX maintainer and I'm trying to check bower off of the list of things I would need to account for in packaging spago. I wasn't sure if spago directly depended on bower or not. Packaging bower for upstream Guix would be no easy task because of Guix's commitment to accounting for all the dependencies in the dependency trail.

Spago uses Bower in various ways when running the spago version command, in preparation for publishing a library. This is the most legacy part of the codebase and we're not interested in fixing it, as the new Registry is about to ship with a new publishing method that doesn't depend on Bower.

Do you have an idea of when the new Registry will ship with a new publishing method that doesn't depend on Bower?

That's great to know. Thanks for the reply and info. Much appreciated

[thomashoneyman]

Do you have an idea of when the new Registry will ship with a new publishing method that doesn't depend on Bower?

Spago won't be able to drop Bower for at least a year from the date that the Registry ships, as we're providing compatibility with Bower during the transition phase.

Is it possible to package Spago without packaging Bower also? After all, the vast majority of Spago usage is done without the library documentation publishing workflow done via Bower.

[jgarte]

Do you have an idea of when the new Registry will ship with a new publishing method that doesn't depend on Bower?

Spago won't be able to drop Bower for at least a year from the date that the Registry ships, as we're providing compatibility with Bower during the transition phase.

Is it possible to package Spago without packaging Bower also? After all, the vast majority of Spago usage is done without the library documentation publishing workflow done via Bower.

Yup, that's the next thing I was thinking of. I'll just package spago and get bower another way. Maybe using nix or npm (unless there is a canonical way for getting bower when using purescript?).

Can I use spago currently without bower if I avoid certain features or is it dependent for vital features of spago?

[thomashoneyman]

(unless there is a canonical way for getting bower when using purescript?)

Almost everyone gets bower via NPM, but it can be retrieved via Nix too.

Can I use spago currently without bower if I avoid certain features or is it dependent for vital features of spago?

If you aren't publishing a library, then you can use Spago without Bower.

[jgarte]

Can I use spago currently without bower if I avoid certain features or is it dependent for vital features of spago?

If you aren't publishing a library, then you can use Spago without Bower.

Oh, that's good to know! Thanks a lot. I can wait a year to publish a library ;) or just get bower some other way that is not with guix. Thanks again for the insight.

[f-f]

Thank you @jgarte! And feel free to add Guix to the installation methods if this package is going to be available for all Guix users 🙂

[jgarte]

Thank you @jgarte! And feel free to add Guix to the installation methods if this package is going to be available for all Guix users slightly_smiling_face

I'll make sure to add it once spago gets accepted into upstream GNU Guix.

Now, I'm off to start packaging it :) Thanks for all the help! So much appreciated

[BonfaceKilz]

Here we are, 1 year later, trying to install spago in GNU Guix. @jgarte how'd you set-up spago in GNU Guix?

[jgarte]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[f-f]

FYI the new spago does not depend on bower anymore, and it's a javascript thing that gets published on NPM. So if Guix has a way to get npm packages in, then this should be straightforward.