index.js

/**package
 * { "name": "npm-test-single-file"
 * , "main": "index.js"
 * , "version": "1.2.3"
 * , "description":"No package.json in sight!"
 * , "dependencies": { "minimatch": "*" }
 * }
 **/

module.exports = "I'm just a lonely index, naked as the day I was born."

@deanlandolt I think https://github.com/labeledmodules/labeled-modules-spec/wiki is interesting, but probably it's to late for the game.

@Gozala Oh, I see, so even though it's defined inline as a JavaScript object, you're still parsing it as JSON?

there's obviously the small perf hit for having to parse it as js before json but that's probably close to nil

i bet the unfamiliar syntax will throw some people off but it's still pretty hot

@issacs

Yeah, that's a contract. We though the fact that it's labeled and not referenced was obvious enough to make people thing of it as JSON typed metadata and not a regular object.

@isaacs BTW I have been planing to implement support for single file modules for npm but in slightly diff way:

meta: ({
  name: 'blabla',
  version: '0.0.1'
})

var streamer = require('!raw.github.com/Gozala/streamer/experimental/promise/core');
// more code

where on install of this module npm will go ahead and place

https://raw.github.com/Gozala/streamer/experimental/promise/core.js into

node_modules/!raw.github.com/Gozala/streamer/experimental/promise/core.js

Would you accept pull request with such a change ?

No, I dont' think it's a good idea for npm to be parsing out require() statements. Pulling out metadata is one thing, but what you'er suggesting is much more involved.

You can just list your dependencies in the metadata.

@isaacs

Yeah makes sense. In fact currently I do this via post-install script which works fine but is kind of painful to have to specify both dependency and scripts per each package. Would be nice if npm had a plugin system for cases like this similar to lein plugins