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Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

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Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#51

Post by chadlavi »

cipherboy wrote: post #39
chadlavi wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what semantic versioning is for, though. Breaking changes to the API that still serve the same function in an app would not unreasonably be a new major version of the same package. No one is obligated to upgrade to the latest major version. A complete rewrite would be a ship of theseus situation. It's all new code, and the API may be different, but it still exists to serve the same purpose in an app. Why pret…

Yeah but think of it from an (Linux OS) maintainer perspective: if you don't have a supported way to install parallel versions of the same package, you're stuck creating it under a new name (e.g., request999) because packages won't update. This is the solution in, e.g., Fedora where "junit" means junit4 and "junit5" is a separate package. Over time, junit might become deprecated and be removed from Fedora when all de…

Who said anything about linux packages? this is NPM.

I'm a library maintainer, and it doesn't make any sense to me to create totally different packages with different names just to handle a breaking change. This is what semantic versioning exists for.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#52

Post by kibwen »

dpedu wrote: post #16

> request will stop accepting new features. > request will stop considering breaking changes. > The committers that are still active will try to merge fixes in a timely fashion Sounds to me like the library is "done".

Reading the issue laying out the reason for taking this step, it all seems quite reasonable and mature: https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142

TL;DR: at over a decade old it's a primordial Node lib which has become increasingly difficult to evolve as the platform introduces new features, so rather than break every user with a massively disruptive new version that embraces modern features it's going to attempt to quietly sunset to free up the oxygen in the room so that new libs can grow.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#53

Post by MadWombat »

djsumdog wrote: post #27
dpedu wrote: post #16

> request will stop accepting new features. > request will stop considering breaking changes. > The committers that are still active will try to merge fixes in a timely fashion Sounds to me like the library is "done".

Yea, makes me think of how every news blog reported mp3 as "dead" when the patent expired, when they should have been saying mp3 is now license free.

Also, "mp3 is license free" rhymes :)

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#54

Post by tantalor »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #32
wnevets wrote: post #23

When did maintenance mode become deprecated? Why isnt that hyperbole?

They have marked the package as deprecated on NPM. https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/deprecate See the banner on this page: https://www.npmjs.com/package/request They are urging people to consider the enumerated alternatives.

> No new changes are expected land. In fact, none have landed for some time.

That's not what "deprecated" means. That's "maintenance mode".

Deprecated means no new clients should use it, and existing clients should migrate to library X or Y, because it's going to be deleted by 202X.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#55

Post by outside1234 »

tal_berzniz wrote: post #17

Deprecating is a weird decision as there is nothing wrong with the "request" module. It doesn't lead to bad code, bugs or security risks. It would be better to say this is the last version, except for security upgrades. These upgrades can be done by other maintainers that are assigned to the project.

It is slightly archaic in that it mostly uses a callback convention, when most of the node community has moved on to promises.

And there are more modern alternatives like axios that do have this promises interface.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#57

Post by kibwen »

neurobashing wrote: post #49
dpedu wrote: post #16

> request will stop accepting new features. > request will stop considering breaking changes. > The committers that are still active will try to merge fixes in a timely fashion Sounds to me like the library is "done".

Hardly a hot take but a lot of people seem to think that if code isn't actively being worked it, you can't use it, as if there can never be a point where fewer and fewer bugs are reported and fewer and fewer features are requested. when's the last time Knuth wrote a check for TAOCP? Is it "dead"?

Heh, that's kind of a bad example, because Knuth is still actively writing TAOCP, and presumably does still send out his (now symbolic) reward checks. Volume 5 expected by 2025! https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#58

Post by JorgeGT »

neurobashing wrote: post #49
dpedu wrote: post #16

> request will stop accepting new features. > request will stop considering breaking changes. > The committers that are still active will try to merge fixes in a timely fashion Sounds to me like the library is "done".

Hardly a hot take but a lot of people seem to think that if code isn't actively being worked it, you can't use it, as if there can never be a point where fewer and fewer bugs are reported and fewer and fewer features are requested. when's the last time Knuth wrote a check for TAOCP? Is it "dead"?

He is still working on it and the latest check I know about was from a few months ago: https://nickdrozd.github.io/2019/05/17/knuth-check.html but I still agree with your first sentence.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#59

Post by philwelch »

neurobashing wrote: post #49
dpedu wrote: post #16

> request will stop accepting new features. > request will stop considering breaking changes. > The committers that are still active will try to merge fixes in a timely fashion Sounds to me like the library is "done".

Hardly a hot take but a lot of people seem to think that if code isn't actively being worked it, you can't use it, as if there can never be a point where fewer and fewer bugs are reported and fewer and fewer features are requested. when's the last time Knuth wrote a check for TAOCP? Is it "dead"?

The last fascicle of TAOCP was released last November.

Re: Request Node lib used by 48k modules is now deprecated

#60

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

tal_berzniz wrote: post #17

Deprecating is a weird decision as there is nothing wrong with the "request" module. It doesn't lead to bad code, bugs or security risks. It would be better to say this is the last version, except for security upgrades. These upgrades can be done by other maintainers that are assigned to the project.

The maintainers claim that the community would be better off without the package. Someone has to stick around to do security fixes for it, and that's time that could be spent making more innovative contributions to the Node.js package ecosystem.
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