[Question] Should Express.js v5.x drop support to older versions of Node?

[rafaell-lycan]

Hi y'all 👋

I'm glad to see progress on Express.js again and this has brought some small expectations and potential questions on this next milestone.

As with any software, it's normal to accumulate legacy code over time, and Express might have a ton by keeping the compatibility from old Node.js versions.

By bringing the next version, would the community & TC also push for finally deprecating older versions in favor of better maintenance and improving overall code quality?

It doesn't need to be something major like LTS only, but something that can accommodate ES6+ standards and great support for modern features such as async/await support. e.g.: >=v12 which was released 5yrs ago.

Why that is relevant: Chances are that users using older versions of Express.js might rarely or never redeploy their apps or upgrade their deps anyway.

I'm not suggesting going crazy to be comparable with other frameworks or following anything crazy, just making Express.js great again would be a lifetime benefit for everyone.

Thanks for reading this.

Cheers.

[wesleytodd]

Hi @rafaell-lycan, thanks for the input. We have an active conversation going on around this in expressjs/discussions#196 and will be discussiong this topic in today's TC meeting. Please attend, we would love to have your input.

As for now, would you mind adding your comments in the existing issue so we can keep the discussion in one place?

[rafaell-lycan]

@wesleytodd Thanks for the invitation.

Unfortunately I couldn't participate, is there a place to get the recording?

Thanks a lot.

[wesleytodd]

We did not record as it was a "working session" but feel free to follow along in the discussions repo for more updates and future meetings.