Create AUR package about vmd HOT 6 OPEN

Maybe vmd-viewer, vmd-app, vmd-markdown or something like that.

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vmd-markdown, vmd-md, vmd-npm, visual-markdown, view-markdown, varying-meat-dice, vexing-musk-dispenser ?

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I presume the package is not yet in AUR? (I think vmd-markdown would be a good name.)

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@kaptoxic Yeah, I'm still hesitating. The problem is that there is some logic (though little) inside bin/cli.js. This would mean that the AUR package would depend on both Node.js and Electron. Electron already contains Node so depending on a second time just to launch Electron would be a bit much.

I haven't yet figured out the best way to do it. There are several ways to create the package:

vmd as-is

Use vmd as-is and install Node just for bin/cli.js and Electron for the rest.

Pros:

• Easy

Cons:

• Large footprint because it depends on Electron and Node.js

Don't use bin/cli.js in the AUR package

Create a separate entry script in Bash that does the same as bin/cli.js but doesn't depend on Node.js.

Pros:

• Doesn't depend on Node.js

Cons:

• The entry script would have to be maintained separately and always updated with the functionality from bin/cli.js.

Separate vmd from Node

Update vmd so that vmd itself (all the stuff the runs inside Electron) is separated from the rest. This means that the package.json can not include the electron-prebuilt dependency and has to be separate. But then vmd could be launched with any compatible version of Electron like electron vmd/server.js my-markdown.md.

Pros:

• Easy to maintain AUR package
• Clean and modular solution
• Independent from Node
• Must not necessarily be bundled with Electron (could use shared binary) or could even be used with alternatives to Electron (or forks) with a compatible API or a compatibility layer
• Electron and vmd could be updated independently
• vmd could theoretically be made to auto-update

Cons:

• A lot of work and will need structural changes
• Two separate projects/packages needed:
  • The code that runs inside Electron needs to be a separate package
  • The package that's published on npm will then depend on electron-prebuilt and the new package, and include the bin/cli.js entry file

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I am not confident about what would be the right decision (nor am I familiar with JS frameworks), but it seems that the solution with the smallest footprint/least internal dependencies (third one) is the right way to go. If I understood correctly, in that case, some work is required and the package would just depend on existing AUR packages (e.g. electron).

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@kaptoxic I moved the logic from bin/cli.js (aa0f54f) and it should now be possible to create an AUR package without Node.js. It's still needed as a build dependency but it will be removed after installation unless you have installed it explicitly.

Depending on the electron AUR package would be ideal but it's also dangerous. Electron releases new versions very often and the API isn't stable yet and breaking changes are being introduced quite often. So in order to stay compatible with the Electron AUR package we'd have to constanty keep an eye on it.
It might be better to download a separate copy of Electron for vmd until Electron 1.0 gets released.

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