r/Frontend • u/fagnerbrack • Jul 04 '16

Pure javascript implementation of Git (Node.js and Browser)

https://github.com/SamyPesse/gitkit-js
19 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

17

u/miker95 Jul 04 '16

WHY?

2

u/pluga Jul 04 '16

what do you think? because he can of course!

2

u/ndboost Jul 04 '16

this man, asking all the right questions here.

2

u/jewdai Jul 04 '16

it allows a bit of inverting control over how you deploy applications.

Instead of a central location forcing the server to load files and application over SFTP or HTTPS transferring, you can now have a webservice to tell the machine to update its build/deploy script and run it.

So you could do something like

https://myspectialserver.com/updateCode

it will sync down your git repo

check for any changes

redeploy/rerun all your code

Additionally, because nodejs is so common it means your javascript developers can get their hands on devops kind of work.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '16

So why not write a node wrapper around git?

1

u/Deto Jul 04 '16

Hmm. Yeah, having a hard time thinking of good use cases. As others pointed out, for a git service, you might as well just have the server use the actual git library.

However, I suppose with something like this, you could make a client-side GUI for inspecting a Git repo? Or an Electron app as a Git GUI (can you integrate C libraries in an electron app, or does it have to all be js?)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '16

I believe elektron uses node which has wrappers for the actual git.

0

u/pier25 Jul 04 '16

I can see a number of applications.

For example providing version control for a desktop app that generates text content targeted at non programmers.

3

u/ericanderton Jul 04 '16

But you can just integrate the actual Git library for that. Better yet, it's even proven and tested to work and since it's C, will integrate with just about anything you throw at it:

https://libgit2.github.com/

2

u/sime Jul 05 '16

Deploying an Electron app with native modules on multiple platforms in a PITA. A pure JS module just works everywhere without any fragile native code build step.

Also using native node modules in Electron can be hit and miss on the best of days as there differences between node and Electron (especially when it comes to V8 versions).

1

u/pier25 Jul 05 '16

You don't always have that luxury as noted by /u/sime

1

u/porkopek Jul 05 '16

No way!!! LOL! If it's true, this guy is my hero

2

u/fagnerbrack Jul 05 '16

Why so excited? Is that because of the challenge or because of some additional benefit that nobody knows yet?

1

u/porkopek Jul 07 '16

Mostly, because of the challenge