Filename patterns

[TrevorBurnham]

We've all been there: You update the jQuery lib in your project. Several modules depend on jQuery. But you want the file to retain its version number. So you have to do a project-wide find-and-replace from

require jquery-1.6.2

to

require jquery-1.6.3

Instead of doing that, I'd like to support wildcards, so that jquery-* scans for any file with a matching name.

[evanmoran]

This would be a very helpful to me. Is it something you are working on?

Another solution (maybe simpler?) would be to define a snocket mapping that let me link a specific keyword to a library. So for example:

snocket.name "jquery", "scripts/lib/jquery/1.6.3/jquery.min.js"

Then when I #= require jquery it will automatically find the right file.

[iangreenleaf]

@evanmoran, I'm doing the poor man's version of exactly that, using symlinks. Of course, it would still be nicer to have a built-in solution.

I can see advantages to both options. Wildcards are a little less opaque, and I like the idea of being able to do

#= require jquery-1.6.*

However, the same need could be filled with the mappings you suggest...

snocket.name "jquery-1.6", "scripts/lib/jquery/1.6.3/jquery.min.js"
snocket.name "jquery-1.7", "scripts/lib/jquery/1.7.0/jquery.min.js"
snocket.name "jquery", "jquery-1.6" # map to another mapping, yeah?

And mappings would open up some other niceties, such as

snocket.name "dom_query", "vendor/jquery_or_some_other_library_i_may_change_at_will"

[evanmoran]

Nice @iangreenleaf, symlinks are a great suggestion. thanks!

I like your idea of mapping to other mappings. What do you think of the word alias instead of name?

snocket.alias "jquery-1.6", "scripts/lib/jquery/1.6.3/jquery.min.js"
snocket.alias "jquery-1.7", "scripts/lib/jquery/1.7.0/jquery.min.js"
snocket.alias "jquery", "jquery-1.6" # map to another mapping, yeah?

Lastly I see this as useful for directory includes as well. For example:

snocket.alias 'jqueryplugins', 'jquery/1.4.5/plugins'     # include a bunch of stuff compatible with this version of jquery 

[iangreenleaf]

Yeah, I like alias a lot better.

[pthrasher]

Fixed in 2.0.0 #43

[ghost]

It would be really useful to have directory aliases as well.
Something like:
#= require @application/core/Observable
An example implementation is here