Dire need for a major update/overhaul

anirudhgiri commented 2 years ago

I sincerely apologize if this issue comes off too critical. I appreciate express-generator, and it is my go-to tool for generating boilerplate for express, but this project is severely outdated. It hasn't had a commit since May 2019!

The JS files still haven't been updated to ES6-style syntax like const, let, and arrow functions, and the PR that does add such functionality (#200) has been sitting dormant for almost 2 years now (and has been locked!).
Jade is the default template engine despite the fact that the project has moved on to becoming Pug.js now
hjs is an option even though it hasn't had a publish in 8 years. The project has moved on to becoming Hogan.js
The default handlebars implementation as it is right now has no support for partials (The issue bringing this up has been sitting dormant since June 2017!!)

I find express-generator to be an extremely useful tool, and I want to see this project be the best it can be but right now it is in dire need of an overhaul.

I'd be willing to work on these issues but I don't want to pour time and effort into a patch only for it to sit unmerged for years.

So the questions I have for @dougwilson (who I assume is the project owner) are:

Is this project even still alive?
If it is, would you like help in maintaining it?
Are some of the completed PRs with long-awaited feature additions (such as #200) going to be merged any time soon?

Again, I would like to reiterate that I appreciate all the work and effort being put into this project and I apologize if this issue comes off too harsh, but this project is lagging way behind and as the "official" boilerplate generator that's listed prominently in the https://expressjs.com/ website, a major overhaul that addresses all these problems is way overdue

dougwilson commented 2 years ago

Hi @anirudhgiri you are correct, this project is in need of a overhaul. Things like the es6 option are juat unsustainable to add in the long term (I mean, how many if statements can you out around raw text in a file in the end?). A project member was rewriting the generator to not only be up to date, but use the new npm init (https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/commands/npm-init) syntax instead of needing to first insall an executable and then run it. This is supposed to completely replace this generator. I'm not sure what happned to that project. I will take a look in to the state of that, but will also at least get this one generating with the current express 4 in the interim.

dougwilson commented 2 years ago

Here is the repo that is the WIP to replace this package: https://github.com/wesleytodd/create-express-app

ghost commented 2 years ago

@dougwilson unfortunately, that WIP seems to be outdated too, having the latest commit from Jun 3, 2019 :smile:

dougwilson commented 2 years ago

Hi @mstranecky-deloittece have you considered trying to contribute there to help it along if you find it outdated? The purpose is to replace this package. If not, what do you think the plan forward should be and who should do it?

dougwilson commented 2 years ago

As for the original issue here, I never heard back and the answer to the question was provided: yes, this package is in dire need for a major update/overhaul and that effort is located here: https://github.com/wesleytodd/create-express-app

expressjs / generator

Dire need for a major update/overhaul #302