[Pkg-javascript-devel] Debian javascript URLs

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

On 08/14/2013 09:40 AM, Ken Dreyer wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Fedora packager here (don't shoot! :)

Hi, I'm also from Fedora and leading the charge for our new JS/Web 
Assets guidelines (in addition to maintaining nodejs).

> Fedora is currently planning some Javascript guidelines[0], and the
> subject of Debian compatibility came up during the discussion.
> Specifically, we're trying to decide how best to serve the Javascript
> libraries out to the web.
>
> I saw that the Debian "javascripts-common" package contains an Apache
> alias for "/javascript". How has this been working for you? In light
> of [2], will this URL scheme be changing sometime soon? If so, what is
> the future URL going to be?
 >
> We were thinking of implementing something like
> "_sysassets/javascript", and I thought it might be nice to check with
> you guys to see what the future holds for Debian in this area.

So first I think I should explain what the deal is with the "assets" 
thing.  As part of the new guidelines, we really want to take into 
account shared non-JS stuff like CSS frameworks, icon libraries, web 
fonts, whathaveyou.

So the idea is to have one all-encompassing "web assets" directory, with 
various subdirectories for different kinds of stuff.  We intend to 
symlink /usr/share/fonts into this directory so web developers have a 
huge collection of free fonts available immediately at their fingertips, 
and so we don't have to repackage anything to make them available on the 
web.

The httpd-exported directory kind of got kicked around and ended up 
being /_sysassets in the current incarnation of the proposal, but I'm 
not very happy with it.  I like how the "sys" prefix sets the directory 
apart enough so that it's not going to conflict with directories already 
being used on web servers out in the wild, but without adding a whole 
lot of extra length and reinforcing that the contents are provided by us 
awesome distro packagers.  The underscore doesn't really make much of a 
difference IMHO.

I also think JS is important enough for it's own directory on top of the 
assets directory, and this would allow us to collaborate with you even 
if you're not interested in the rest of our assets approach.

So, what I'd really like to do is:
/sysjs      -> system-provided shared JavaScript libraries
             -> /usr/share/javascript on the filesystem
             -> same HTTPd and filesystem-side on both Debian and Fedora
/sysassets  -> system-provided shared static assets
             -> /usr/share/web-assets on the filesystem
             -> up to you whether you want to implement

This is highly unlikely to conflict with anything that's going on in the 
real world. Not to mention that "/sysjs" is half the length of 
"/javascript".  (Who wants to type a bunch of crap into their <script> 
tags? ;-)

I really think Debian and Fedora both would benefit from some synergy 
here.  If we diverge too much any chance of upstream support here is 
completely lost.  :-(

/me is really looking forward to nuking the nine million copies of 
jQuery we have floating around the distribution.  ;-)

Thanks!
-T.C.