Elixir library no longer updated/published to hex.pm

[vitalis]

I noticed that the last published version was 25.0.2 on Nov 09, 2022

[mpkorstanje]

That's correct! I couldn't find a version of OTP and Elixir that worked on Ubuntu latest as provided by GitHub.

We're also a bit short on contributors with Elixir knowledge and time to spare.

If you could take cucumber/gherkin#72 and find a combination of versions that does, and possibly upgrade the project itself we could start publishing again.

[mpkorstanje]

Already done. Making the actual release is quick.

[vitalis]

I think its possible to set the messages version to ">= 0.0.0".. this way gherkin will always use the latest version of messages by default.. ofc it's possible to set the version of the messages manually in the project that is using gherkin in case of some major issue..
What do you think?

[mpkorstanje]

That would get us into trouble when we do make incompatible changes.

Changing version numbers when there are no breaking changes shouldn't be a problem, we have that automated with Renovate.

Ideally we'd have a version range, like https://github.com/cucumber/gherkin/blob/ce9d72e5cc99ef08207522526108670b0615b03b/javascript/package.json#L43

[vitalis]

ok, so we can set the range >= 20.0.0 , < 21.0.0

[mpkorstanje]

Yes, that would work.

[vitalis]

OK, there is an issue, please unpublish the messages library from hex.pm..
It's not published correctly, we should have files under lib/cucumber_messages/generated/
Here is 22.0.0 version(which has none):

And here is 15.0.0:

[mpkorstanje]

I've send an email to support about that. The latest version should contain all the generated files.

[vitalis]

Yes, you solved this on 27.0.2, I can see it, great news! :)

[mpkorstanje]

@vitalis another thing you could help with. Elixir currently generates the messages from a protobuf definition. But we've moved away from protobuf for a number of reasons. Turns out what we really needed was a json schema.

Unfortunately, code generation for json schemas wasn't great. So we now use a ruby template. Would you be able to help us get Elixir of protobuf? It might look a bit complicated, but it can be explained in 30 minutes. If you need help, hop onto Discord and we can schedule a call.

[vitalis]

LOL.. deleted the wrong reply.. I think last time I was reading erb was like 5-6 years ago.. hehe
I was a Ruby / Ruby on Rails developer since 2006 :)

Nothing is complicated and I'm sure I'll be able to help, we can schedule a call for the end of next week. If I'll have time before that I'll give you an update.. And I'm not a big fan of Discord, Google Meet is much preferable for me.. or Slack :)

[mpkorstanje]

I'm sure we can make one of those work!

[vitalis]

Cucumber got some forgotten Elixir love ;)

[vitalis]

cucumber/gherkin#324

[vitalis]

Hey @mpkorstanje, just remembered something..
I warmly suggest to add mise to all the libraries for development tools versions menagement.. It's based on asdf but much better.. I don't remember when was the last time I did't use asdf or mise for any of my projects. I believe I'm using asdf since it's first version.
It's amazing, really amazing, best tool for dev tools versions management, saves a lot of time in life :)

[mpkorstanje]

That's cool. Unfortunately it has the N+1 frameworks problem. Most contributors only know one language and the package manager that comes with it, adding an extra one creates a big hurdle.

For messages we have separate build processes. One to generate the message files through Make, and one to build the language using a language specific build tool.

So ideally to build the language there would only be two commands. For example for example for java we use mvn test and mvn deploy. It would be perfect if using Elixir could be reduced to that simplicity using mix.

[vitalis]

I promise you, the transition to mise will be so smooth and we will make the dev world a better place. :)