doc: add initial list of technical priorities

[mhdawson]

Co-authored-by: Jean Burellier [email protected]

Signed-off-by: Michael Dawson [email protected]

This PR is a result of work done by the Next-10 team - https:/nodejs/next-10 and those who participated in the mini-summit - nodejs/next-10#76.

The goal is to agree on a documented set of priorities that we believe are important to the future success of Node.js. Submitting this PR is intended to get review/discussion from the broader collaborator base and then serve to document the consensus we reach.

One of the follow on efforts will be to document what we should be/are doing for each of the priorities and to figure out the best way to capture and share the info.

For some of the priority areas we already have people doing what's needed (for example a big thank you to @targos for all his work on keeping v8 up to date which supports "Up to date ES JavaScript Support" and reporting on it as a strategic initiative - https:/nodejs/node/blob/master/doc/guides/strategic-initiatives.md. Another good example is ongoing work related to https:/nodejs/undici by @ronag and @mcollina.

For other areas the Next-10 team is planning a deeper dive to discuss/capture specific items/work that we believe the project should be doing to support that priority. If people comment on this issue that they'd like to be involved in the discussion of specific priorities we will at mention when we set up the session for the deep dive on that topic.

As always the the work done going forward will depend on what individual collaborators have time to prioritize. It is still important for us as a project to have a documented agreement on the key priorities we think are important so that we can promote and support collaboration on these priorities.

We are looking forward to your comments/input on the priorities listed in the PR and would also welcome people joining the next-10 effort to keep things moving forward. We currently have this doodle open to find a new meeting time so if you are interested please add your info: https://doodle.com/poll/a46canyfppq9mcht?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link

[mscdex]

Didn't we have a document like this already somewhere? I seem to recall different items being on that particular list.

[mscdex]

I found this but that doesn't seem like what I remembered. Even so, was it decided to leave out items from the previous list in this version?

[mhdawson]

@mscdex thats for the the review/comments. In terms of:

I found this but that doesn't seem like what I remembered. Even so, was it decided to leave out items from the previous list in this version?

It probably could use more explanation but this document is intended to be the current technical priorities while https:/nodejs/node/blob/master/doc/guides/technical-values.md is meant to be the values of the project and their relative priorities. I do see that the title in the technical-values.md doc does make that confusing.

I'm thinking about how to clarify better in the doc but the two docs should be complimentary. For example as we work on Modern HTTP we need to ensure that the implementation respects the values of Developer experience, stability, operational qualities and maintainer experience and it directly supports the value of having up to date technology and APIs.

I think that we'll see the current technical priorities change more quickly over time, versus the values which have been built up over many years.

I'm not sure if that answers your question, but they are not left out as the values considered/balanced as part of any technical work that we do.

[mscdex]

Also s/techinical/technical/ in the commit message

[mhdawson]

@mcollina @mscdex comments addressed

[mhdawson]

@Trott accepted all of your suggestions.

[Trott]

@Trott accepted all of your suggestions.

All but two, perhaps? I see #40235 (review) and #40235 (review) as not yet accepted.

[mhdawson]

@Trott sorry for missing those. Think I have them all now.

[mhdawson]

Landed in 8d6a025

[GeoffreyBooth]

Regarding the first priority, “Modern HTTP,” does that include HTTPS imports (#36328)? Or just APIs like the https API?

[mhdawson]

@GeoffreyBooth I'm not sure if that fits best in "Modern HTTP" or "ESM". That is something we can figure out as we flesh out the next level of detail for each.

[GeoffreyBooth]

@mhdawson Regardless of which heading it falls under, though, is HTTPS imports a priority or desired feature to add to Node in the near future?