Nodejs Workflow Improvements

Summary

Many industry pundits predict that IoT will not be built by traditional C/C++ embedded developers as there just aren't enough of them to go around. The 2016 Stack Overflow developer survey shows JavaScript to be the most popular and in-demand language. Node.js is a popular JavaScript runtime environment that is likely to become unceasingly popular among IoT developers. We propose that Yocto Project be enhanced to better support the typical Node.js workflow.

Typical Workflow Assumption

Typical workflow involves tinkering with npm on the target and then locking down once app is working.

Proposals and Opens

• Clarify rationale for mutliple nodejs layers: meta-oe, meta-nodejs, meta-intel-iot-middleware
• Comprehend Node.js LTS and decide what version we support
• Move nodejs into openemebdded core?
• Should we create a node.js category in Bugzilla ?
• Create image for node development (core-image-nodejs) with node and npm (and what else?)
• Once project is working on target, how do we package it. devtool cleverness that sucks files from target?
• Extend devtool to handle multiple layers to help structure complex projects

Tasks in Bugzilla

See Project Management bug #10653 that has all Node.js tasks/bugs as dependencies.