(Forward) compatibility with npm

[scottgonzalez]

All of our package.json fields that aren't exactly the same as npm's package.json should be moved under a jquery field to ensure compatibility.

This has already cropped up as an issue with the dependencies field since a plugin's final dependencies are unrelated to its npm dependencies, so npm install will do the incorrect thing.

[scottgonzalez]

licenses, dependencies, docs, demo, maintainers, files?

[jzaefferer]

licenses and maintainers conflict with npm?

[scottgonzalez]

Only because they don't exist in npm, so we can't guarantee forward compat.

[cowboy]

Take a look at https://github.com/isaacs/npm/blob/master/package.json

Probably the only things that belong in the "jquery" namespace should be things that are very specifically tied to the implementation of the "jQuery thing" parsing package.json. Like plugin dependencies and title. Also, if there is going to be any field that indicates where the actual primary plugin .js file is, etc. jQuery-specific stuff.

It seems odd to namespace licenses and maintainers because they aren't package.json-interpreter-specific, but instead apply to the entire project. Pretty much any interpreter-agnostic, project-general CommonJS properties should be at the root level. IMO.

Maybe npm should namespace their main / engines / dependencies / scripts properties!

[wagenet]

What if you have a project that is designed to both run on the server and browser and the dependencies differ between the two?

[scottgonzalez]

@wagenet That's exactly what this is about, the difference between dependencies and jquery.dependencies. The former is for the server with npm, the latter is for the actual plugin's dependencies in the browser.

[wagenet]

@scottgonzalez Seems reasonable.

[scottgonzalez]

The plan is to move dependencies, docs, demo into the jquery namespace. licenses and maintainers will stay at the top level. files will be dropped since it is custom and we're not using it for anything.

@cowboy Does that seem good to you?

[cowboy]

It seems like docs and demo are the only new properties being introduced, and dependencies is the only property that might conflict with npm, so I'm down. Looks good!