allow workbenches in BRJS libraries

[andy-berry-dev]

Like Blades some libraries provide UI components so it would be useful to allow workbench(es) for BRJS libraries.

[leggetter]

By allowing libraries to have workbenches do we run the risk of the majority of coding moving to libraries, even when it's application specific? Is there anything we can do to guard against this happening? Or is this going to have to be something that falls under "good practice" and "culture"?

[james-shaw-turner]

Yes we do run that risk. The reason for putting code into libraries is to make it shareable and reuse it. Generally the more generic code becomes the more expensive it is to write. Code that is reused needs well defined use cases, a good API as well as copious documentation.
The danger is that by making it more appealing (and easier) to put code into a library the temptation is to share it before it is ready. It then becomes more expensive to refactor the code because it breaks backwards compatibility and all the code that uses it also needs refactored.
I think the best answer is to make inter-blade communication easier (without breaking encapsulation) so people don't feel they have to put code into a library just so it can be used within multiple places in an App (this has happened at a client recently).Then libraries are only used for generic re-usable code.
So I think it is largely a matter of culture - although I think the culture change happens quite quickly (as it did with us) when you feel the pain of reusing code that isn't ready yet and hasn't been validated against multiple use-cases.