build using npm dependecies

[stefanocudini]

@Wilkins I'm planning to convert the dependency system by third-party libraries from git submodules to npm dependecies using only a simple npm install that download into node_modules all libraries... and subsequently using grunt to concat these into single file.

This should make it more easy contributions from other users. What do you think about it?

I'll start doing this is a new feature branch.

[Wilkins]

Hi @stefanocudini Thank you for your question and asking for my vision about this.

My first answer was "Sure, why not!" But thinking about it in details, I would rather say "let's see it in real usage", because I think we may have performance and maintaining issues.

Here is why :

• First of all, not all the packages used today are npm modules. Specially forks or small modules, like the one I created for geojson-ot-path. So you will have to push them to npm and maintain them up to date.
• I just ran the installation of the project, and the commands git submodule init + git submodule update was quite fast (less than one minute). Running through npm, might take a lot of time, because npm system package often retrieve a large number of dependencies.

But of course, as you pointed out :

• It will simplify dependencies : only npm modules and no more git submodules
• easier to maintain for additional developers who just want to contribute for small patches (less commands and all the dependencies in one place)

I can help you on that if you want, just let me know.