support for git dependencies

[clemos]

It doesn't seem possible to have git dependencies currently :

"dependencies": {
        "hxnodejs": "https://github.com/HaxeFoundation/hxnodejs.git"
}

The above seems to fail. Or maybe there is another syntax ?
If not, then I think it would be nice to support git dependencies, pretty much like npm does.

[nadako]

note that it would be great to also be able to specify commit number/branch/tag (like npm does I think)

[clemos]

Yes, it's like npm install git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/npm.git#v1.0.27
see https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/install

[hexpunk]

+1 for this

[nadako]

As mentioned in #135 (comment), I think we should adopt NPM dependency format, see https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json#dependencies.

[ncannasse]

I'm fine with following anything that is quite standardized as NPM seems to be, as long as we keep backward compatibility with our previous format, so users can continue downloading and submitting libraries using the old format.

[boozook]

1. In this case haxelib.json must be exists in root of repo;
2. What about another (potential) supported systems such as Mercurial or Subversion? Should we detect what use by url? No :).

[porfirioribeiro]

Maybe something like Cargo from rust lang?
http://doc.crates.io/manifest.html#the-[dependencies]-section
It accepts git repo's as a depedency. The Cargo.toml is either used on Lib's or app's to specify options including dependencies.

[nadako]

That is interesting stuff, thanks!

[boozook]

I like the Cargo impl too. but this is new format and will change the our current format:
From {"libname" : "ver"} to {"libname" : {"version":"", "git/hg/svn":"", "branch/tag/rev":""} }.

But we can really preserve backward compatibility. We can easy support old(current) and new formats - detect format via Reflection and use the special provider (parser) for it (Or EitherType).

[boozook]

Another one variant - namespace-like:

"dependencies": {
        "libFromHaxelibA": "",
        "libFromHaxelibB": "10.2.4",
        "libFromGit": "git::https://github.com/HaxeFoundation/libFromGit.git",
        "libFromHg": "hg::https://bitbucket.org/HaxeFoundation/libFromHg"
}

But without tags/revs/branches.

[boozook]

I love the NPMs format but it doesn't support any other control version system.

[nadako]

The npm tool itself doesn't support anything but git, but the URL format looks extensible enough (e.g. hg+http://... similar to supported-by-npm git+http://....