Plan to move to a modular 1.0

[mafiosso]

According to jashkenas/underscore#2771 (comment), these changes are planned:

1. Fix things so that development is smooth again.
2. Check existing issues and PRs for things that might be best addressed before modularization.
3. Release version 0.4.
4. Modularize.
5. Release version 0.5.
6. Complete any missing documentation and unittests.
7. Release version 1.0.

[jgonggrijp]

Hey folks, nice to introduce! I'll add some background to the above information.

Since quite recently, I've become actively involved in Underscore. My most significant contributions so far are the move to ES module notation (jashkenas/underscore#2826, released in version 1.10) and chopping everything into single function modules (jashkenas/underscore#2849, upcoming version 1.11). I plan to give Underscore-contrib a similar treatment, which is what step 4 above refers to.

I'm working on a new library that will depend on both modular Underscore and modular Contrib, which is the first reason for me to come up with the above plan. Besides that, I also believe that a thriving, up-to-date Contrib will benefit the Underscore community at large. For both reasons, I plan to continue helping to maintain Contrib after the above plan has completed.

I previously contacted @fogus and @joshuacc about this resurrection plan and they both responded positively.

Now that we have this ticket in place, we can use it to keep track of the progress. Stage 1 just started with a pull request by @mafiosso, which I'll review shortly. Some time will pass before I start contributing code myself, as I'm currently still preparing the Underscore 1.11 release.

[jgonggrijp]

The above PR by @mafiosso completed stage 1, so we're at stage 2 now. As a first step, I have created temporary "before modules" and "after modules" labels, which I'll be applying in a large triaging sweep over all open issues and PRs.

The "before modules" label will mark everything that needs to be done during stage 2, at a minimum. The "after modules" label will mark everything that is better left until after stage 4. If an issue or PR gets neither label, it does not matter whether it is taken up before or after stage 4, although the "before modules" label indicates higher priority.

I'll report back here when the triage sweep is done.

[mafiosso]

The above PR by @mafiosso completed stage 1, so we're at stage 2 now. As a first step, I have created temporary "before modules" and "after modules" labels, which I'll be applying in a large triaging sweep over all open issues and PRs.

The "before modules" label will mark everything that needs to be done during stage 2, at a minimum. The "after modules" label will mark everything that is better left until after stage 4. If an issue or PR gets neither label, it does not matter whether it is taken up before or after stage 4, although the "before modules" label indicates higher priority.

I'll report back here when the triage sweep is done.

Hi @jgonggrijp thank you for this activity, I'll check the PRs soon and leave some comments about it's functionality and maturity to merge, if you agree.

[jgonggrijp]

@mafiosso I agree, please do!

[jgonggrijp]

Triage sweep is done. The remainder of stage 2 is a matter of processing all the "before modules" tickets.

@mafiosso Thanks a lot for your reviews so far! In those cases where you think that a PR should be merged, but still requires some work, please feel free to submit a continuation PR as well if it suits you.

[jgonggrijp]

Quick update: as some may have noticed, my activity in this repo has ramped up during the past weeks. Today (or yesterday, depending on your time zone), we released Underscore 1.11, so Contrib will have my undivided attention from now on, at least as far as the open source share of my time is concerned.

Some links: version 1.11 release notes, article, TLDR article. The clickable modular annotated source gives a nice impression of where we're heading with Contrib.

Right now, we are still at stage 2, but I think we'll be able to move on to the next steps quite soon.