Experimental building of npm packages

[elmerbulthuis]

see #717

This demonstrates what it would look like if we would introduce a build step. This PR also removes .d.ts files from the repo and generated them in a seperate folder (dist) during build.

• Also build the test folder in a clean way
• Discuss use of Just (i like just) instead of xtask
• setup proper formatting
• ...

[elmerbulthuis]

One thing I like to do is to have a script in the package.json that performs local (as in project-local) tasks. In this case compiling code. Then there is a workspace scoped task runner, currently xtask that calls those project-local tasks in the right order.

I would prefer Just to be the workspace task runner, there is already a Justfile in there! I like Just over xtask as i feel Justfiles are quite readable so it becomes more clear what exactly the thing is doing.

But I am also fine with xtask ofcourse.

[elmerbulthuis]

I build only the src folder at the moment, and I put the output in the dist folder that I don't check in. Quite happy with how clean the src folders are now. I do need to find a neat solution for the test folder, but that is for another day!

\o/

[vados-cosmonic]

Hey @elmerbulthuis thanks for getting this PR out there! Would you mind breaking the work for only one project (jco-transpile) off into another PR? You can leave this one open and "just" cherry pick changes over.

I'd like to review that small piece and then split off some more projects and make progress one chunk at a time if possible!

With regards to the just/xtask/npm task running situation, I'd like to lay out the rationale for the current state of things:

• just is a general, top/project-level task runner
• xtask is a useful Rust code related task runner (it can do nice things like use rust libs and even the projects in question)
• npm scripts are task runners native to JS code

I think all three of these have their place -- IMO the things they do arguably should all be accessible from just, but I'm not sure it makes sense to collapse all into any one of them.

To your concern specifically:

I would prefer Just to be the workspace task runner, there is already a Justfile in there! I like Just over xtask as i feel Justfiles are quite readable so it becomes more clear what exactly the thing is doing.

Just is at a higher level of abstraction than xtask! I am onboard with all important xtasks being expressed via just targets!

I build only the src folder at the moment, and I put the output in the dist folder that I don't check in. Quite happy with how clean the src folders are now. I do need to find a neat solution for the test folder, but that is for another day!

This sounds great to me, src and dist are the defaults IMO in the JS ecosystem and the src folder getting cleaner is a huge benefit IMO!

[elmerbulthuis]

Superseeded by #861, #862, #863.