Cross project sharing and borrowing

[amyjko]

What's the problem?

Currently, a project cannot have any external dependencies on other projects. It can only be built with its own code and any build in types, and any types shared between sources. This is mostly fine, but it would be nice to be able to borrow code from other projects, a la package managers.

What's the idea?

The essence of this idea would be to allow projects to borrow names from external projects, including projects in a creator's collection, or public projects. This would allow people to build shareable libraries, for example, and promote reuse.

Who benefits?

This would generally expand the possibilities of what people create.

Design ideas

This would require many things to be fully supported:

• We'd need to different borrow syntaxes: Two syntaxes: ↓ source.name (already supported) and something like ↓ 🌐 project.name version
• A revision to Borrow's evaluation to indicate a reference to a public project. We could reuse the 🌐 icon, for example, which would indicate to Borrow that it should search the database for projects, rather than a source name in the local project. And a version would be required, to identify which version should be used. When a borrow is evaluated, the project database is hit to look up the project name and version, which is just a project ID.
• Borrowing from external projects would require versioning projects, and keeping those versions around permanently. We would need a concept of publishing a version of a project, and an interface for publishing that ensures all requirements are met (names are shared, etc.)
• Borrowed projects would need to be cached and evaluated so that they could be borrowed from efficiently. We would only have to cache once though, since they would not change.
• When editing a published project, we'd need a concept of creating a new version and seeing previous versions. For example, it might be helpful to add to projects a list of versions. This might require a “libraries” collection in our Firestore schema, where a library is a 1) project ID, 2) a unique name, 3) a list of project IDs corresponding to archived versions of the library, 4) a description of the library for searching purposes.
• Some way of showing libraries in the documentation view, and a way to search for them.
• Autocomplete suggestions for borrows from external libraries.
• A publish section of sharing dialog that shows associated library info, previous versions, enforces publishing requirements. Button creates a library version (localization, shared names, unique name if not yet created). Pressing the button snapshots the project, giving it an ID that is the unique name plus it’s latest version. It is not editable, is not in a gallery, is not archived, is listed. It still has the same owner. It has a version that gets incremented each time the publish button is pressed. The duplicate versions have an origin, which is the project ID from which it was copied.
• Lots of example libraries to demonstrate the purpose of libraries.

[amyjko]

Hi @kelliannr and @yz425-2036461! It looks like you're doing some design work on this enhancement. I added a bunch of notes to the design brainstorms above; I'm happy to chat through this fairly large feature here or in person on Tuesdays. There's a lot to design!

[amyjko]

Hi @kelliannr, @jinnisi, and @RuweydaAbdi,

It's the end of the quarter, so please post an update on this issue. Things to consider:

• Should you still be the assignee? (If you're planning on working on it, yes! Submit a comment explaining your plans. If not, then unassign yourself, so others are eligible to grab it).
• Do you have any work products that are hosted outside of GitHub? Embed them in this issue, so others can build off of them.
• Are there any branches associated with this issue? Please link to them in the issue.

If there's nothing to change above, then at least post a comment indicating that you've seen this. Thanks!

[RuweydaAbdi]

Hello! After I finish up the Themes issue, I am planning on starting on this one next. I know Jinny said she wasn't planning on coming back next quarter. And it looks like @kelliannr has been working on this issue with someone around October? I was busy with themes issue so i never really checked on this issue's progress. But I do plan on starting on this issue winter quarter.

[amyjko]

Okay! Definitely coordinate with @kelliannr when we resume.

[jinnisi]

I will unassign myself in this role! Thank you!

On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 7:29 AM Amy J. Ko @.***> wrote:

Okay! Definitely coordinate with @kelliannr https://github.com/kelliannr when we resume.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/wordplaydev/wordplay/issues/8#issuecomment-1856059923, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AYOMDA5LFBKDBCNZBZDTBPLYJMLMJAVCNFSM6AAAAAAV4MLMJSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNJWGA2TSOJSGM . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[kelliannr]

I will unassign myself as well. Thank you!

[amyjko]

It's the end of Winter! Please provide an update on this issue, including:

• Whether you plan to continue work on it
• If you do not, 1) provide a detailed update of its status, 2) add any unfinished work, 3) list any any unmerged branches, and 4) unassign yourself, so someone else can take over the task. Please leave the issue in better shape than you found it, helping future contributors to start from where you left off.

If you do plan to continue work on it, carry on. Otherwise, thank you for your contributions!

[RuweydaAbdi]

I feel like i am hogging this issue from others. I still plan to work on it after themes is complete and I'll be sending in my proposal for that soon. I hope to start immediately onto this issue, but If themes still need more work after receiving feedback. I will unassign myself to allow others to work on it. For now I'll stay assigned as I plan to send in Theme's draft very soon.

[amyjko]

Okay, sounds good @RuweydaAbdi!

[RuweydaAbdi]

Update on issue:

• spent time learning Svelte (we are using this instead of react for the project) and how to use both figma and Svelte to implement and develop a solution for this issue.
• After learning and familiarizing myself with this, and learning to transition from design to development. I will be working on/submitting progress to the issue's implementation here and over the summer as a volunteer.

[amyjko]

Thanks @RuweydaAbdi! This is a big one, and it will definitely require a lot of front and back end changes, so don't hesitate to ask questions. There's also still a lot of design to do for this. We're going to need a lot of strategic planning to make this happen. (And if you want a smaller issue, I can make some recommendations).

[RuweydaAbdi]

Thank you, Is this issue possible to complete if it were in a more group setting? EX/ if I were to work on this issue with 3-4 others? Who are mainly developers? I'm hoping to be able to find members this summer. If I'm unable to, I might want a smaller issue since this would be my first time being a developer.

[amyjko]

Let's find a smaller one for you to work on this summer! If you can come to meetups, we can explore together. (We'll be a much smaller group this summer, so we can chat about the knowledge you're starting with and find you a good match).

[RuweydaAbdi]

ok awesome!

[joonpiter]

Hi @RuweydaAbdi, It seems your not to working on this issue. Would you un-assign yourself from it?