Clojurians Log v2
re-frame
What's the best way for re-frame to provide alpha features?
Currently we have re-frame.alpha which replaces every name in re-frame.core. Stable implementations, like reg-sub-fx, are slightly altered to support alpha features. That means you can't mix functions from both namespaces, so re-frame.alpha is contagious. You have to change every :require in your project from re-frame.core to re-frame.alpha. This all seems clumsy.
I can imagine some other ways:
1. Have a whole separate artifact, and include the new alpha stuff in core: re-frame/re-frame {:mvn/version "v1.4.5-alpha"}
Or:
2. Put only alpha features in re-frame.alpha. Add some runtime control flow to old features, like reg-sub-fx and subscribe, so that their behavior & performance are only different when you "use" alpha features.
◦ Maybe this could work with dead-code-elimination, not sure.
A different namespace name doesn't have to be clumsy - see an example of the :ns-aliases option in shadow-cljs here: https://github.com/day8/re-frame-10x#easy-setup
oh yeah, maybe that's the way to go
I still feel idea #2 might be more articulate. The code itself can indicate which alpha features are in use. That could come in handy when writing reusable re-frame code. On the other hand, it might just prove annoying later for users to update their code once we merge an alpha feature into core.