docs/Node: mention homebrew-npm-noob

[zmwangx]

I found myself writing quite a few node-based formulae recently, so I wrote a formula generator for npm packages, homebrew-npm-noob (which, as the name hints, is inspired by Tim's homebrew-pypi-poet; hats off). To try it, just

brew install zmwangx/npm-noob/noob

or

pip install homebrew-npm-noob

(Python 3.3+ required.) It generates formulae like

require "language/node"

class Svgo < Formula
  desc "Nodejs-based tool for optimizing SVG vector graphics files"
  homepage "https://github.com/svg/svgo"
  url "https://registry.npmjs.org/svgo/-/svgo-0.7.2.tgz"
  version "0.7.2"
  sha256 "e4fdae5cebe896bc90ec66acd4199495e0b826e55d5e8631c4ba6a0bf968d2ca"

  depends_on "node"

  def install
    system "npm", "install", *Language::Node.std_npm_install_args(libexec)
    bin.install_symlink Dir["#{libexec}/bin/*"]
  end

  test do
    raise "Test not implemented."
  end
end

or

require "language/node"

class BabelCli < Formula
  desc "Babel command line"
  homepage "https://babeljs.io/"
  url "https://registry.npmjs.org/babel-cli/-/babel-cli-6.24.1.tgz"
  version "6.24.1"
  sha256 "d69a00bdb4f35184cda1f5bfe8075cd4d569600b8e61d864d1f08e360367933b"

  devel do
    url "https://registry.npmjs.org/babel-cli/-/babel-cli-7.0.0-alpha.15.tgz"
    version "7.0.0-alpha.15"
    sha256 "e825b9fe8e578aa392a8b398950070d3816c4c75e99953adb07ccfe858aea454"
  end

  depends_on "node"

  def install
    system "npm", "install", *Language::Node.std_npm_install_args(libexec)
    bin.install_symlink Dir["#{libexec}/bin/*"]
  end

  test do
    raise "Test not implemented."
  end
end

It would be nice to "advertise" it in brew's docs so that other developers won't need to manually figure out tarball URLs on the npm registry (not trivial) and write boilerplate code.

[MikeMcQuaid]

Any chance of convincing you to add something to brew create for this?

[zmwangx]

brew create is centered around knowing the URL beforehand:

brew create URL [--autotools|--cmake|--meson] [--no-fetch] [--set-name name] [--set-version version] [--tap user/repo]:
    Generate a formula for the downloadable file at URL and open it in the editor.
    Homebrew will attempt to automatically derive the formula name
    and version, but if it fails, you'll have to make your own template. The wget
    formula serves as a simple example. For the complete API have a look at
    http://www.rubydoc.info/github/Homebrew/brew/master/Formula.
...

In this case we only take a package name, so an alternative syntax needs to be devised, and language/node being a niche (only 27 formulae in core at the moment), a special syntax doesn't seem to be worthwhile, and may even add confusion (trying to brew create <package name> rather than brew create <tarball url> is a quite natural to do).

[MikeMcQuaid]

Convinced me. Thanks again @zmwangx!

[zmwangx]

You're welcome.