3.0.0 release & the future of mdpdf

[elliotblackburn]

3.0.0 release

I've just cut the release of 3.0.0 which contains a number of bug fixes and security updates. It contains a pretty large upgrade to Puppeteer which is the package we use to generate the final PDF. For this reason alone @nopeless suggested, and I agreed, that we cut a major upgrade release. The main reason behind this is it means updates will need to be pulled in intentionally rather than as a byproduct of something like a tilde or hat in a package.json. This means people have a chance to run a proper test should they be using mdpdf as part of some greater application.

Going forward

As some of you have noted there's been a lack of updates recently, this is because the project is maintained by one person for the most part (me) and I don't work in js / node day to day anymore. Also, my need for the project itself has dropped off since I started it back in university. That said, it doesn't mean the project is dead.

The next important milestone is going to be fixing the final remaining security flaw which requires a big upgrade of the meow package we use for handling CLI arguments. Unfortunately this isn't straight forward as it requires mdpdf to move from commonjs to esmodules which is a bit of a shift. This is something we should do anyway because esmodules really is the future (well, the past and present by this point honestly) but it's going to take some time.

As mentioned I don't have a huge amount of time for the project so right now it's a case of either: it happens when I get some time and energy to work on it, or: someone from the community steps in and opens a PR. Either way it's an important step to keep mdpdf ticking secure and useful so it will happen at some point.

If you're interested in submitting a PR, feel free to raise an issue or reach out to me directly. We're looking to do this in two chunks, one to get us onto esmodules and then another to upgrade meow and it's sub-packages. Neither should be a huge amount of work, but the former will be a large diff relative to the project size itself.

Thanks to everyone for the contributions recently, in particular @nopeless who knocked out some fixes and improvements fairly rapidly over the past couple of weeks. The project wouldn't be continuing if it weren't for people submitting contributions!

[elliotblackburn]

Predictably I forgot to merge the actual puppeteer upgrade so this is now under 3.0.1 🤦 note to self, do a release after some kind of caffeine intake not before.