Node INTL locale Collation - node.js

I'm working on a side project that involves sorting Japanese and Thai strings. When I was testing the sorting in client-side Javascript, I was able to use a.localeCompare(b, "languageCode") which worked. When I tried this same logic in Node, it did not work, because the Node INTL object is restricted to English as the default.
I want to customize my node build as described in the above link, and came across the ICU4C-data Node Module, which I understand contains a full set of ICU data. I've been playing around with different build flags, like the one specified by the (sparse) README: --icu-data-dir=node_modules/icu4c-data, to no avail - no matter which flags I set I cannot get the INTL Collator's compare function to give the expected results. Is there an obvious flag that I'm missing, or key assumption I have wrong?
Here are a few things important notes/resources:
The end goal is Thai & Japanese collation - if there's another approach using Node to implement this, I'm open to suggestions.
Collation must be done in Node
I'm going to be relying on Array.prototype.sort() - mainly looking for a comparator
Using Node 0.12, with ECMA support
My first time customizing a Node build (~1 month experience)

Install the full-icu package instead. It will give instructions on how to load the rest of the data.
Also note that future node versions should not require any configuration to pick up the new data, you can see #3460 if interested.
I need to fix the icu4c-data's readme to reflect this.

Related

How can I make vscode assume a node.js context, so that it doesn't assume `fetch` exists?

By default, when editing a JavaScript file in VSCode, it will assume that the fetch function and related types exist in the current context. This makes sense for JavaScript designed to run in the browser, but when running on node.js the fetch function does not exist unless it is installed via node-fetch. I find that in this context, VSCode is misleading, as it will not highlight an error when you trying calling the fetch function, or access other types such as Request and Response, even though they do not exist unless you have node-fetch installed.
How can I configure vscode to assume a node.js context, and therefore assume that fetch does not exist unless I explicitly import it from node-fetch?
Why web types are there by default
From the docs for tsconfig.json compilerOptions.lib:
TypeScript includes a default set of type definitions for built-in JS APIs (like Math), as well as type definitions for things found in browser environments (like document).
How to change the defaults
Create a tsconfig.json or jsconfig.json, and set the compilerOptions.lib array to not contain "DOM", which means that lib.dom.d.ts (the "DOM standard library" type definitions file that comes with TypeScript) will not be assumed. You should specify which ECMA Script standard you want to write your source code in.
The config file also has fields to control what files it takes effect on: files, include, and exclude. If you specify none of them, include will default to **, which matches everything beside and recursively under subdirectories beside the config file.
Having to create this file could be seen as annoying if you just want to write a single JS file (ie. now you have a whole config file just for one source file!). I don't know if there are alternatives that are more convenient for such a use case. If anyone knows, please edit this answer.
I looked briefly into TypeScript triple-slash directives, which allow specifying things on a per-file basis, but I think you can only add things (ie. I don't think you can use them to remove a lib).
At the time of this writing, there are VS Code settings that can be applied at the user-settings scope that affect settings for implicit projects (JS/TS files which don't have a project config file) (js/ts.implicitProjectConfig.*), but none of them are for setting the compileOptions.lib field, and my gut says it's probably not going to happen (but don't quote me on that).
You probably also want types for the Node API
Use npm to install a version of #types/node. Make sure the major version number of the version you install matches the major version number of the version of Node JS you want to script to be runnable on.
Fun irrelevant facts to this question
Continuing on the point about VS Code's user-settings for implicit projects, VS Code puts some defaults in effect (on top of those that TypeScript itself does) if no project is detected. You can poke through the code at github.dev/microsoft/vscode by doing "Find in Files", using extensions/typescript-language-features/**/* as the "files to include" field, and compilerOptions as the find query. compilerOptions.lib seems to not be something that VS Code touches in such a scenario.

TypeScript: What's the "right" `target` for node 11?

TypeScript's has a target configuration with many values, like esnext, es2015, es6 etc. (very confusing)
NodeJs current version (11.11.0) supports many of the new features of JavaScript. Is it ok to target esnext on TypeScript? will it work?
If not, what's the right target to use when targeting nodeJs 11.11.0
Edit:
Thanks to #Seblor we know that esnext is very dynamic and TC39 can add features as they see fit. It represents the next version of JavaScript that is being worked on (Regarding agreeing on features)
The refined question should be: According to the current version of NodeJs (11.11.0) and the current version of TypeScript (3.3) can we use esnext as the target?
Based on Node-Target Mapping on the TypeScript wiki "es2018" is the right mapping for Node 10, "es2019" is the right mapping for Node 12. It seems that non-LTS versions of Node aren't documented, but given this information I feel like "es2018" is the safest target.
Looking at node.green, ES2018 support seems to be full in Node 11.11.0, so you should be able to set ES2018 as target with no trouble.
You can push your luck by using ES2019 or even ESNext since the support looks good enough. However, I do not know if typescript will use non-yet-implemented features if you use ESNext as target (like the private properties).
Personally I would stick with ES2018, as I see no need to push for ESNext.
Ok so the answer is (As usual) Depends!
It depends on the features that you plan on using. The TypeScript version, target on the tsconfig.json and the NodeJS version.
There are two things to check before you can use a JavaScript feature:
You have to look at this table, and look at your target environment column, in my case it's NodeJs column. And make sure that the cell is Green. Red means that you can't run this feature on this environment.
Make sure that you can compile your code using TypeScript. If you can compile the code using TypeScript, you're ok. Note that you can NOT count on the TypeScript column. Red cell means that the compiled code will not run on previous version of JavaScript...
For example BigInt:
TypeScript with target: "esnext" will compile (With no problem) a code with bigint (While the support cell is Red), and you can run a JavaScript code with bigint on NodeJS 11
Note that on the top left, there's the ECMAScript version-group. you can go lower than esnext

What exactly is the difference between fuse2 and fuse3?

FUSE = Filesystem in user space recommends that distros package both a fuse2 and a fuse3 (see here) and indeed they do.
What exactly is the reason for this? Is it just that the init code in fuse3 is different?
The release notes for libfuse 3.0.0 appear comprehensive. Read below the heading 'Changes (since FUSE 2.9)'. Functions have been renamed for clarity, functions dropped and parameters tidied up. Here are a few examples from the release notes to give a flavour:
The fuse_lowlevel_new function has been renamed to
fuse_session_new and no longer interprets the --version or --help
options
fuse_loop(), fuse_loop_mt(), fuse_session_loop() and fuse_session_loop_mt() now return more detailed error codes instead of just -1. See the documentation of fuse_session_loop() for details
There are new fuse_session_unmount and fuse_session_mount
functions that should be used in the low-level API. The fuse_mount
and fuse_unmount functions should be used with the high-level API
only
The fuse_invalidate function has been removed
Installing libfuse2 alongside libfuse3 allows applications using libfuse2 to keep working without needing to be updated straight away.

Pharo dependency hell

I am trying to develop a simple project in Pharo, and I would like to add its dependencies in Metacello. My project depends on Glamour, Roassal and XMLSupport.
A way to cleanly install my project is to install the dependencies by hand first. Following the book Deep into Pharo one can do
Gofer new
smalltalkhubUser: 'Moose' project: 'Glamour';
package: 'ConfigurationOfGlamour';
load.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfGlamour) perform: #loadDefault.
Gofer new smalltalkhubUser: 'ObjectProfile'
project: 'Roassal';
package: 'ConfigurationOfRoassal';
load.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfRoassal) load.
Gofer new
squeaksource: 'XMLSupport';
package: 'ConfigurationOfXMLSupport';
load.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfXMLSupport) perform: #loadDefault.
and then my project will work fine.
I have tried to create a ConfigurationOfMyProject using the Versionner, and I have added Glamour, Roassal and XMLSupport as dependencies, using the version that are currently installed in my image (2.6-snapshot, 1.430 and 1.2.1 respectively).
The problem is that I am not able to load my project using Metacello in a fresh image. The project loads fine, but whenever I try to load my classes I get method missing errors in Glamour. Moreover, it is apparent that something is different, because even the world menu has different entries.
I have tried other combinations of versions, including using the stable Glamour (2.1) but I have obtained more errors, including not even being able to open the project in the Versioner (it complains about a missing Roassal name).
What is the correct way to add these dependencies cleanly?
First of all I want to highlight that if configuration is in class ConfigurationOf<proj-name> you can load it as using #configuration message:
Gofer new
smalltalkhubUser: 'Moose' project: 'Glamour';
configuration;
load.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfGlamour) perform: #loadDefault.
A I don't see your project, I can just suggest you to write configuration by hand. There is an easy tutorial called Dead simple intro to Metacello.
According to your description it should be something like:
baseline01: spec
<version: '0.1'>
spec for: #common do: [
spec blessing: #release.
spec repository: 'your repo url'.
spec
package: 'YourPackage' with: [
spec requires: #('Glamour' 'Roassal' 'XMLSupport') ].
"also maybe you have a couple of packages that depend on different projects"
spec project: 'Glamour' with: [
spec
className: 'ConfigurationOf Glamour';
repository: 'http://smalltalkhub.com/mc/Moose/Glamour/main';
version: #'2.6-snapshot' ].
spec project: 'Roassal' with: [
spec
className: 'ConfigurationOfRoassal';
repository: 'http://smalltalkhub.com/mc/ObjectProfile/Roassal/main';
version: #'1.430' ].
"and same for XMLSupport" ].
Also you can try to load #development versions, as I have an impression that projects like Roassal and Glamour have very outdated stable versions. Also please note that Roassal2 is actively developed and will replace original Roassal in Moose platform, maybe you want to consider using it.
I would seriously discourage writing configs by hand - that is the assembly code of Metacello ;) Unless you are working on cross-Smalltalk-platform projects with platform-specific code (e.g. code for Pharo 1.4 vs Squeak 4.5) - an area which hasn't been explored yet, Versionner is the tool for you. I have written dozens of configs with it and have yet to run into a roadblock.
When you say you added them as dependencies, did you just add them as projects in the "Dependent projects" pane?
If so, you also have to specify which of your project's packages depend on them. To do this, you select the relevant package of your project on the "Packages" pane.
Now, click on the edit button with the pencil icon that just became enabled. In the dialog that appears, click the green + button and add the external projects of interest.
It looks like you are trying this in an old version of Pharo?
Roassal has been superseded by Roassal2, and the support for XML is on smalltalkhub, split into ConfigurationOfXMLWriter and ConfigurationOfXMLParser, both in PharoExtras.
If you load the right groups from Glamour you don't need to describe the dependencies on Roassal, as Glamour already depends on Roassal(2). That explains your cyclic dependency.
You have also run into the problem we've recently talk about on the pharo mailing lists
that #stable is not a usable symbolic version name. In the Seaside/Magritte/Grease projects we've changed to using #'release3.1' style symbolic version names. That ensures that there is less of a ripple effect when progressing stable.
Snapshot versions should never be a dependency, they just describe what is loaded at the moment, and are basically not upgradable.
[edit]
Metacello by default tries to be smart about not installing older versions over newer. This works pretty well as long as things are not moved to different packages. So it's a bit of bad luck there that you ended up with a non-working combination.
Metacello support complex workflows, and different smalltalk projects (need to) use different workflows. It often takes some time to reach consensus on the best way to do things.
Roassal does not depend on Glamour, but you can create the cycle in your own configuration :)
Packages were moved from squeaksource to ss3 and smalltalkhub because the server had had stability problems. More recently, those problems seem to have been fixed. The xml support was split as it was noted that a lot of applications actually don't need both writing and reading of xml.
Once you have a working configuration, it might be a good idea to build and test it on the continuous integration server of pharo: http://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution
If not your actually application, at least the open source parts as used by you. That way the Pharo, Glamour & Roassal teams can know if a change they make breaks something.

documentation for cabal-install configuration file

The ~/.cabal/config stores configuration which cabal-install uses. I wanted to do some hackery on it. (Specifically, having multiple GHC versions installed, I wish to have separate documentation indexes).
I couldn't, however, find any documentation about its' syntax or variables except for what is included in default file. Is there any documentation available?
Edit: I've stated the goal above, but let me add some details: If the same package (eg. GTK) is installed in two versions of GHC they end up in the same documentation index file. I wan't that local documentation index to be separate for each GHC installation. I believe it is possible in some way using documentation directory setting, but there has to be a variable for currently used GHC version. If there isn't one there might be some workarounds available, but I won't be able to say that unless I see the documentation.
This seems to work, although I've only tested it with one version of GHC:
documentation: True
doc-index-file: $datadir/doc/$compiler/index.html
install-dirs user
docdir: $datadir/doc/$compiler/$pkgid
With the other options left at the default, this generates documentation in .cabal/share/doc/<ghc-version>/<package-name>, and the index in .cabal/share/doc/<ghc-version>/index.html.
There appears to be very little online - not even the haddocks for the cabal-install code. So your best bet may be to puzzle it out from the source. cabal unpack cabal-install, or view the cabal-install repo online. Look at SavedConfig in Distribution/Client/Config.hs. As an example, it imports GlobalFlags from Setup.hs; the individual flags, eg globalCacheDir, are associated with their config-file syntax (which is also the command-line syntax) in the globalCommand function below, remote-repo-cache in this case.
You should also ask dcoutts in the #haskell channel on irc.freenode.net, in case he has new docs available.

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