Where do we stand?

[ralphtheninja]

I feel it's time to start focusing on this repository now. I'd really like to get this done and then ship level as one package to rule them all 😄

But first, lets breath some air into it.

However, I'm unsure of where we stand, like what should be done to make this work well.

Some links:

• swap out idbwrapper with straight indexeddb code #46
• Investigate level-js status ipfs/js-ipfs-repo#127

Lets use this issue to summarize what's needed and which direction we want to take it.

@vweevers @timkuijsten I feel you guys have have been digging around the most in this code and most likely have the most valuable input.

Some questions:

• what is the big problem with the current implementation?
• what are we fixing, except for using latest abstract-leveldown?

[ralphtheninja]

I'd like to use this issue to break down what needs to be done into concrete issues and add them to the v3 Milestone. Then we can prioritize easier and push it through. I'd be happy to help.

[vweevers]

Because I'm short on time, some quick thoughts:

• I think we should use level.js as the starting point (not the fork), to get clean PRs
• level.js has custom logic for serializing buffers, typed arrays etc. Similar to what we did in memdown, we should strip most of the logic, prefer Buffer over typed arrays, and use _serialize* as the only code path for serialization.
• Before (or in parallel to) the work here we should try and remove process.browser and similar hacks from abstract-leveldown
• Iterators should by default keep reading from the underlying IDB cursor, to fulfill the snapshot guarantee
• Removing idbwrapper is not a must for abstract-leveldown compliance (I think) but idbwrapper has terrible performance so if we can do it, great.

Also maybe I should plan a "levelvacation" 🙂 (meaning a vacation to work on level)

[vweevers]

If we do remove idbwrapper, our first focus should be to clean our code up, making it work in latest Chrome, maybe do a prerelease or two, and only then worry about other browsers and any hacks we may need.

[ralphtheninja]

Also maybe I should plan a "levelvacation" slightly_smiling_face (meaning a vacation to work on level)

💯

[timkuijsten]

@vweevers @timkuijsten I feel you guys have have been digging around the most in this code and most likely have the most valuable input.

At the time I was working on some sort of PouchDB alternative. The motivation to start hacking on level was because the software was a bit unmaintained and could use some love. Hence removing the wrapper, removing unneeded dependencies and updating required dependencies.

I haven't been closely involved with Node for a while and since I'm trying to move more into system programming I don't think that will change anytime soon. Feel free to use any of my code if it still makes sense ;) it's all released under ISC. Gl guys!

[ralphtheninja]

@vweevers This can probably be closed?

[vweevers]

Yes! :)