Allow Node.js to be used through Node version managers

[Procrat]

Discord username

Stijn#6455

How important is this feature to you?

0 – Not too important

Describe the idea you'd like to see implemented.

If we put a .node-version in the root of the repo, Node.js version managers like fnm, nvm, nvs, n, nave, nodeenv, nodist, ... automatically select the right Node version. At the moment, it either needs to be set manually or the system-installed version is used.

I can make a PR with it, but the version number would be duplicated in build-config.yaml, unless the build script were to look for the version number.

Is your feature request related to a problem?

The system-installed Node version is rarely the exact one pinned by Enso. This results in one more hurdle to cross for new people to build Enso for the first time.

Screenshots, screencasts, mockups.

No response

Would you be willing to help us implement this feature?

Yes

[wdanilo]

I like it. Didn't know that you can use this file to hint these tools with the version. Please create PR with it. Also, take a look at the build script, if you'd be able to fix it in 15-30 mins, include it in your PR. If not, add a note there that it needs to be fixed :)

[mwu-tow]

It's no problem for build script to take the version from the file. We do a similar for retrieving the GraalVM version from build.sbt.
If anyone needs some help with this, please ping me.

@Procrat By the way if there are node version managers that:

• work across Windows, Linux, and macOS;
• do not not require root privileges.

Then it might be worth updating documentation and guiding users to it — the fewer platform-specific setup instructions and more out-of-the-box just working, the better.

[enso-bot]

Stijn Seghers reports a new STANDUP for today (2023-03-23):

Progress: Made our build setup use .node-version so Node version managers can be used It should be finished by 2023-03-23.