Investigate N-API helping to avoid future breakage like in https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/22754#issuecomment-425072975

[mhdawson]

nodejs/node#22754 (comment)

Hitesh suggested we should look at the modules that were broken and see if they are good candidates for N-API as its could have prevented this kind of breakage.

Next step is for Hitesh to look at the modules to identify if there are any good candidates
After that we may reach out to maintainers and offer mentoring.

[digitalinfinity]

@joaocgreis helpful compiled a list of the modules that were impacted by the API change. Here are my notes:

Module	Notes
level	doesn't appear to be a native module, wrapper for leveldown?
serialport	we've started a port but it probably needs to be revived - Glenn is engaging here.
ref	Already ported to n-api by @addaleax
iconv	Easy port to N-API. We should engage here. (bnoordhuis/node-iconv#189 needs follow-up work or adoption) - now we have this new PR bnoordhuis/node-iconv#196
bcrypt	Already ported to n-api by @NickNaso -- Mantainers will switch to N-API when Node.js v8 will go aut of maintenance
leveldown	We have an old N-API port, but we should re-engage here (Level/leveldown#540) N-API port available in v5.0 which is the next version of leveldown
microtime	Easy port to N-API. We should engage here @NickNaso has a port at wadey/node-microtime#56 Porting merged to master and the version 3.0.0 of the add-on has been published and now use N-API
time	Easy port to N-API. We should engage here (Glenn has a PR in)
sqlite3	PR in progress here, it looks like we need to get back to @springmeyer
node-report	Not a good candidate for N-API - Being merged into core
zeromq	@rolftimmermans has a next generation version here that is on the roadmap to be merged back to master!

[NickNaso]

Hi everyone,
I already worked on microtime some months ago. See wadey/node-microtime#56

[mhdawson]

@joaocgreis Thanks for the list.

In terms of sqlite3 @anisha-rohra has been working on that and we are down to one problem. Slowing us down is that Anisha is back at school and so only has a smaller amount of available time as a student on call.

In terms of node-report we have a PR open to meld it into core which would remove it from this kind of problem as the testing would be part of node core itself.

[mhdawson]

In terms of serialport, it was just the very start of the port and I believe the code base has probably changed a lot since then as well. All to say its probably a restart from scratch in that case.

[vweevers]

Regarding leveldown, see nodejs/package-maintenance#52 (comment)

[ralphtheninja]

doesn't appear to be a native module, wrapper for leveldown?

@digitalinfinity Yes!

[ghinks]

I had a stab at npm time and forked it with a conversion from nan to napi here

[ghinks]

I raised a PR for the npm time module.
A couple of things I have learned from this first PR.

• contact the package owner first and make sure they are ok with this
• check that all the unit tests work on the master branch first
• understand that napi works from node 8 onwards and that existing automated tests that use early versions of node may no longer work and will the owner be ok with this

[mhdawson]

@ghinks it should for 6.X as well, although in the case of both 6.x and 8.x its only after a particular semver minor version.

[gabrielschulhof]

There's another module we should consider helping to get ported:

https://github.com/nospaceships/node-raw-socket/

https://www.npmjs.com/package/raw-socket (445145 weekly downloads)

The module net-ping depends on it, which itself has just as many downloads.

Filed an issue: nospaceships/node-raw-socket#54

[ghinks]

yes, let me take a look. I am hopefully going to meet the other maintainers for the serialport module. That module uses lots of libuv and is looking more like a re-write.