[Release] Split JS to its own repository

[raulcd]

We have been moving successfully several Arrow implementations outside the mono repo and have had several mailing list thread discussions about it.

• Split C# Discussion
• Split Java Discussion
• Split Go Discussion
• Split R Discussion

There are other implementations that are also on their own repositories, like Rust or Julia.

This has several benefits for both the mono repo and the individual implementations.
The individual implementations doesn't have to follow the versioning scheme for the mono repo where we have a major release every 3 months and can have their own release schedule. This helps users because it does not require them to upgrade to new major versions every time. It can allow us to perform a better use of semver where users understand whether there is a major change and might break their integration. It also helps maintainers focus on the implementations they work on, with a smaller code base and less "noise" from other implementations, issues.

As per the mono repo it facilitates releases focusing on the implementation and bindings that are on the mono repo, reducing the number of CI jobs to be taken into account.

We have discussed in the past whether the JS implementation should be moved to its own repository but we have decided not to move the conversation forward because it is not clear if we have enough capacity for someone to do the releases.

@trxcllnt @domoritz I would like to know your thoughts about this or if you have ideas so we can move this forward in the future.

I am starting this as a GitHub discussion but will move to the Mailing List as a vote will be necessary, I just want to be able to reach JS maintainers.

cc @kou

[martinberoiz]

Excuse my ignorance, but would this potentially facilitate having an arrow flight JS package to use in a web browser app?

[domoritz]

That's a new feature request and orthogonal to where the code lives.

[kou]

FYI: I can help releasing JS like I do for Julia if we split JS to its own repository. In Julia, Julia develops request a new release to me like apache/arrow-julia#524 (comment) and then I start a release process.

[trxcllnt]

I strongly support this proposal. It would be great if JS could release more frequently and follow strict semver. We would also like to decompose the JS implementation into smaller packages to aid with bundle sizes/tree-shaking.

[kou]

@raulcd Can we proceed this?

[raulcd]

I think we can. Should I start a vote on the ML as we've done with the others? @trxcllnt would you be able to help with release tasks similar to how we do it with Julia were committers ask for new releases and then @kou or myself could help with the release tasks? Just to add the context to the Mailing List thread.

[kou]

How about starting a discussion on dev@ too before we start a vote on the ML? (GitHub Discussions is connected to user@ not dev@.)

[raulcd]

I've started a mailing list discussion ad dev@ here:
https://lists.apache.org/thread/qpjt8ypmw1h8j1445kmn8s7wqml0cwoy