State of the project

[ghempton]

Just curious as to what is the state of CSR? Are you still planning on actively working on it? I see that the code is still largely undocumented and sprinkled with TODOs and the roadmap hasn't been updated recently. How far away from being a true coffee script replacement is the project? Do the issues actively reflect what is left?

The reason I ask is that I am very excited about the project and would like to help in whatever way I can. Thanks!

[srdjan]

this would be very good to know... +1

[delaaxe]

would appreciate too +1

[webskin]

+1

[alexkirsz]

+1

[michaelficarra]

@ghempton: Thanks, you've reminded me that I forgot to send out the last backer update. Currently, I'm at YOW! in Brisbane, QLD. I think the slides from my talk will give you everything I would have put in the update and then some. The Current Status and Future Work sections will probably be of most interest.

I'm glad to see everyone still so excited about this project. I am working to get through the open issues and do what I've mentioned in the Future Work section in my free time. Unfortunately, my 4 month full-time funding period is over and I can no longer contribute as much time as I would like. The project can certainly still be considered actively maintained, though, and it is very nearly feature complete.

I believe comment preservation, super, and array splicing are the only features that remain incomplete. I'd encourage anyone with a comprehensive test suite to start using the compiler now, but don't start a new project using this compiler just yet. I don't want anyone to have a bad experience with a subtle bug, and with a project this young it would be naive to assume that we know about all of them. To make sure I touch upon each of your points, I will answer them more directly below:

Just curious as to what is the state of CSR?

Actively maintained, fairly stable, very nearly feature complete.

Are you still planning on actively working on it?

Definitely. I love this project and have many more things planned for it.

I see that the code is still largely undocumented and sprinkled with TODOs and the roadmap hasn't been updated recently.

Yes, that is an unfortunate reality. It is on my TODO list to clean up and document everything.

How far away from being a true coffee script replacement is the project?

That's a tough question because it depends on what you're looking for. It works, it supports nearly every feature of the language, and it's a tiny bit stricter regarding whitespace (which could still use tweaking). If that is good for you, you should be good to switch. For very large projects or teams, you should let it harden first like any other integral tool.

Do the issues actively reflect what is left?

Together with the Future Work section, yes, I believe so.

The reason I ask is that I am very excited about the project and would like to help in whatever way I can. Thanks!

I will be happy to ping you next time I see something that could be easily contributed. The first thing that comes to mind is porting the REPL over, but we're currently trying to rethink the REPL implementation in jashkenas/coffee-script, so that might not be a good idea. The next thing I could think of would be switching out uglifyjs for esmangle. That should be pretty easy for just about anyone.

[ghempton]

@michaelficarra Thanks for the update! I am very excited for the future of this project and it becoming the de facto coffee script compiler.

I am also casually working on EmberScript and hope to be contributing back upstream to CSR.

[surjikal]

@michaelficarra Thanks for the update! Do you have an ETA for the super feature? It's the only thing holding me back from using your compiler.

[michaelficarra]

@surjikal: I'm surprised super is a blocker for you. I didn't think too many people were using it. Maybe you're just one of those that are.

super support is tough mainly because it's hard to define simple, consistent semantics for it. So not only do I have to try to emulate the behaviour that was codified in the original compiler, but also take into account any pending issues with approved changes/enhancements to super. Additionally, I have to consider how super may be changed in the future so that it doesn't require a fundamental redesign later. This involves looking into the changes that have been made to super in forks like LiveScript and Coco.

So, in short, it may take a little while. If I were you, I would make the uses of super more explicit anyway by desugaring them. Feel free to help with any part of that development process. I would love for someone to open up an issue and write some nice logic rules surrounding that feature that take into account everything I've mentioned here.

[paulmillr]

@michaelficarra super is used almost always in backbone-based web applications, it should be pretty popular to many people. I’d open an issue.

[vendethiel]

I think you know that super is a reference in itself in coco. ie super is superclass.method, super ... is superclass::method.apply this, ... and super:: is superclass::

[paulmillr]

jashkenas/coffeescript#2638

[surjikal]

@michaelficarra I'm using super for a backbone-based web app. Exactly what @paulmillr said :)

[rosenfeld]

Just to let you know, one of the main reasons I chose CS was because it has built-in sugar for OO programming and I use classes all the time and "super" is just an integral part of OO programming. I use it a lot and I don't use backbone in my applications.

[tonqa]

Could you please update us on this issue?
we are waiting for this a lot.

[smeevil]

Just an other shout out for the support of "super" :)

[backspaces]

Is it possible for CSR to target asm.js? This would absolute switch me in a heartbeat! I realize some work by the programmer would be required but if a list of CSR styles (num|0, +num, indication of static objects, typed array usage etc) were available, it would be appreciated.

It may simply not be a good match. But if so, lots of us would be interested.

[srdjan]

+1

On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 1:19 PM, backspaces [email protected]:

Is it possible for CSR to target asm.js? This would absolute switch me in
a heartbeat! I realize some work by the programmer would be required but if
a list of CSR styles (num|0, +num, indication of static objects, typed
array usage etc) were available, it would be appreciated.

It may simply not be a good match. But if so, lots of us would be
interested.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/106#issuecomment-15008472
.

[backspaces]

Actually, rather than asm.js .. which I think Bruno addressed nicely
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/coffeescript/0LlXx2vFUrQ/LjIcmY9HSBQJ
.. the more important question is: will CSR have a greater chance to target new versions of JS?

It hadn't occurred to me when I started using CS that the JS engines are a moving target. On the other hand, CSR should be able to target newer JS versions, right?

[waynehoover]

Is this project still aiming to replace the official coffeescript compiler? Any new updates on its current state?

[alexgorbatchev]

+1

[srdjan]

+1

[backspaces]

Isn't the real question "How will CoffeeScript with ES6"? I.e. the point of CSR is to have a more flexible, more formal compiler .. so given that we know ES6 is soon upon us, shouldn't we consider how CS2.0 should evolve?

Or maybe simply: so much of ES6 was inspired by CS, are we even sure we need CSnext? I think we do, because JavaScript is simply too dangerous for Most Of Us.

But any conversation about CSR w/o ES6 is flawed.

[thedjpetersen]

+1