N-API

[jamen]

A work in progress branch of N-API refactor

• [x] mpg123.create
• [x] mpg123.open
• [x] mpg123.close
• [ ] mpg123.write
• [ ] mpg123.flush
• [x] mpg123.<S*,U*,F*> formats
• [ ] napi_* status checks

It includes some breaking API changes that take a more simple approach. e.g.

1. There is no more finis(success) callbacks, we just return booleans or objects.
2. The pointer is a plain object using napi_create_external instead of the old pointer_wrapper.h
3. The formats are shorter, at mpg123.<S8,S16,S32,U8,U16,U32,F32,F64>, for signed, unsigned, and floats

Currently working on mpg123.write and mpg123.flush. Will be tricky because I have to learn their async system! I am not that experienced with C++ so we will see how this goes, might take a bit longer. Help wanted.

[vectrixdevelops]

This could be merged after NAPI reaches a more mature and stable state in Node. Currently master and NAPI can be used as a test comparison to assist NAPI with development too. Keep up the good work!

[jamen]

Not bothered with Travis atm cuz I dont even have teste written. Also mpg123.write still needs work, still learning how to do their async.

[vectrixdevelops]

Just for when you get around to it.

[dy]

Hey @jamen what's the status of the issue? How do you think is the NAPI strong enough to go on with that instead of nan?

[jamen]

Hey @dfcreative. I pushed some changes and I'm gonna keep hacking at this branch. Replied to your email for more details.

About the stability of N-API. I think it is stable enough. It is no longer hidden behind a flag, but the API did change a bit since I last used it (nothing really complicated). One downside is that it outputs this:

(node:24955) Warning: N-API is an experimental feature and could change at any time.

Maybe there is a flag we can compile with in binding.gyp to disable this?

[jamen]

I'll be busy next few weeks. Here are resources I've used if anyone is interested in continuing this:

• libout123's docs
• N-API docs
  • napi_create_external (for wrapping out123 instance)
  • napi_get_value_external
  • Simple Asynchronous Operations
• node-speaker's binding.gyp and binding.cc
• node-libao's binding.gyp

Some extra thoughts:

• libao might be a good alternative. When I tested it would fail because I didn't have alsa-dev for Arch installed, but I didn't figure that out until after changing libraries.
• libsoundio seems really challenging to bind due to how it uses callbacks. It seems friendlier for a C++ user but seemingly doesn't play well with N-API.
• Since we are publishing prebuilds I don't think it matters which libraries we end up using, although it would make it easier or harder for us to maintain.

[jamen]

N-API is no longer experimental in Node v10