Core Planning

[mikeal]

I'd like to use this issue for planning the core session.

The idea is that this session will teach people the basic layout of node core, particularly lib/, and possibly how the module system really works.

Another goal of the session is to get people comfortable with the idea of hacking on core and possibly submitting a pull request or just taking part in an issue. At the very least, it would be nice to give people some idea of the social aspect of how node is built so that they feel it's accessible were they to need it.

@isaacs

[domenic]

One of the most effective demos I've seen in intro-to-Node talks is firing up node-inspector and debugging into the core modules. This has a few nice benefits:

• Shows people how to use tools they are familiar with, instead of the command-line debugger
• Shows how modules get wrapped into closures (since it's the first line of every debugged file)
• Shows that most of Node is "just JavaScript," and you can debug into it at will.

[mikeal]

adding @piscisaureus to this session.

[piscisaureus]

To actually compile core people need a complete toolchain. Can we ensure that people have these upfront? Otherwise we'll spend half of the session getting it all to work.

[mikeal]

can we depend on a package in the package.json for nodeconf2013 that requires all the build tools for node core? that way if they've installed nodeconf2013 we know they can compile core.

[isaacs]

Pretty much any module with a binary component will require a build toolchain. How about adding weak as a dependency? We use that in core to run GC tests anyway.

[mikeal]

that won't validate that you have OpenSSL. are there are other deps that aren't bundled?

[piscisaureus]

OpenSSL is bundled.

[mikeal]

I'm thinking of adding to the instructions that everyone fork nodejs on GitHub and check it out. This would be a little more enabling than just having the code in the nodeconf2013 package.

What do you guys think?

[piscisaureus]

Maybe tell people to compile node.js master? It doesn't require much setup.

[isaacs]

Just tell them to compile Node.js. That's the best way to know that they can compile Node.js.

[mikeal]

I can add that to the instructions.