A new major version? #153

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1. mahmoodhamdi commented on Mar 29, 2026

   

   mahmoodhamdi

   on Mar 29, 2026

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   I'd love to see this happen. I took a look at the current dependency tree and here's what I found regarding what could be simplified by dropping older Node.js versions:

   Dependencies that could be removed/inlined:

   1. setprototypeof — On any Node.js version with native Object.setPrototypeOf (v4+), this package already just re-exports the native function. With a higher minimum Node.js target, this can be replaced with Object.setPrototypeOf directly.

   2. inherits — Resolves to util.inherits on Node.js, which itself just does Object.setPrototypeOf(ctor.prototype, superCtor.prototype). Could be replaced with ES6 class extends syntax or a direct Object.setPrototypeOf call. This would also align with the ES6 class extension discussion in Allow HttpError extension by ES6 classes #98.

   3. toidentifier — A ~6 line function that converts a string to PascalCase. Small enough to inline directly.

   Dependencies that would likely stay:

   4. depd — Provides runtime deprecation warnings with caller site info. Not trivially replaceable without losing functionality, though process.emitWarning() (Node.js 6+) could be an alternative worth exploring.

   5. statuses — Core functionality (HTTP status code → message mapping). Would stay as a dependency.

   So targeting something like Node.js >= 18 (current oldest LTS) would allow dropping 3 of 5 dependencies, and potentially using modern syntax throughout (class, const/let, etc.).

   Happy to help with a PR if there's agreement on the minimum Node.js version to target.
2. mahmoodhamdi commented on Mar 29, 2026

   

   mahmoodhamdi

   on Mar 29, 2026

   More actions

   One more thought — if we're targeting modern Node.js for v3, using ES6 classes would also naturally solve #98 (ES6 class extension support). The entire codebase could become significantly simpler:

   class HttpError extends Error {
     constructor () {
       if (new.target === HttpError) {
         throw new TypeError('cannot construct abstract class')
       }
       super()
     }
   }
   
   class ClientError extends HttpError {
     constructor (message, code, className) {
       super()
       this.message = message ?? statuses.message[code]
       this.name = className
       this.status = code
       this.statusCode = code
       this.expose = true
     }
   }

   This would drop inherits and setprototypeof naturally, fix the instanceof issues with subclassing (#98), and make the whole codebase more readable. toidentifier could just be inlined as a 6-line helper.

   That would take the dependency count from 5 down to 2 (depd + statuses).
3. bjohansebas

   added sub-issues on Jul 25, 2026

   • Interface changes #104
   • Allow HttpError extension by ES6 classes #98
   • Include typescript typings in the package #100
   • httpError(N, error) is misleading if error is already an HTTP error #96