Language ignition

JavaScript (node.js)

• Installation
• Start a new project
• Initialise your project
• Install a library
• Install a command-line tool

Example text has a yellow background. You should replace the example text with the appropriate text for your situation.

Suggested text has a blue background. The suggested text should work fine, but you can replace it with an alternative of your choosing if you like.

Installation

Download and untar the appropriate tarball from nodejs.org, and add symlinks for the programs to a directory on your PATH. Assuming you're on x86-64 Linux and ~/bin is on your path:

$ mkdir -p ~/apps/node
$ cd ~/apps/node
$ wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.16/node-v0.10.16-linux-x64.tar.gz
$ tar xzf node-v0.10.16-linux-x64.tar.gz
$ ln -s node-v0.10.16-linux-x64 current
$ ln -s ~/apps/node/current/bin/node ~/bin
$ ln -s ~/apps/node/current/bin/npm ~/bin

Start a new project

Create a file called README.md that describes your project to a human using Markdown.

Create a file called package.json that contains meta-data for your project.

{
    "name": "language-ignition",
    "version": "0.1.0",
    "author": "Michael Williamson <mike@zwobble.org>",
    "description": "Get started with a new language",
    "keywords": ["language"],
    "main": "./lib/index.js",
    "repository": {
        "type": "git",
        "url": "https://github.com/mwilliamson/patter.git"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "promise": "~2.0.0"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "nodeunit": "~0.8.0"
    },
    "license": "BSD",
    "scripts": {
        "test": "nodeunit tests"
    }
}

Initialise your project

Make sure you're at the root of your project, which should contain package.json

$ npm install

Install a library

Let's assume we want to install promise.

$ npm install promise

Install a command-line tool

Let's assume we want to install browserify.

Create a directory to install the tool, including a node_modules sub-directory:

$ mkdir -p ~/apps/browserify/node_modules

Install the tool:

$ cd ~/apps/browserify
$ npm install browserify

Run the tool:

$ ~/apps/browserify/node_modules/.bin/browserify

Optionally create a symlink in a directory that's on your $PATH. Assuming ~/bin is on your path:

$ ln -s ~/apps/browserify/node_modules/.bin/browserify ~/bin