Support modern browser runtime?

[blakegong]

Hi Rory and Linus,

Thanks for this great repo!

I am wondering whether you would like to add modern browser support? Maybe utilising FileReader API to handle fs work?

It would be great to see that happen. I can contribute with some PR too :)

Best,
Blake

[roryrjb]

@blakegong on one hand I wouldn't want this module to get too complicated, but on the other, having a one stop shop for MD5 check-summing in JavaScript might be really handy. Go for it.

[blakegong]

Thanks for the blessing. Will try my best :)

[blakegong]

Hi Rory,

Just a small update here. I didn't find enough time to do it last weekend. But managed to write a prototype using https://www.npmjs.com/package/md5 that works on the browser. Based on that experiment, there are two things that I wanna discuss here.

1. Since crypto package only exists in node, in order to make it work in browser, would you prefer to write md5 calculation logic by hand, or simply use the aforementioned library?
2. Personally I intend to keep the current API. Problem is, browser version of this library will introduce two additional files browser.js and promise-browser.js in order to make importing from md5-file and md5-file/promise work (exporting different code based on different node.env would make file size bigger. e.g.: node does not need all the new logics I am gonna put in this library). Thus I am hoping to get your approval to change the file structure, placing current index.js and promise.js into /node/ or /src/node/, and the same for browser code. In this way, better code splitting and clear file structure should be achieved.

[roryrjb]

@blakegong I wouldn't worry too much about the increased file size, the md5 package and its dependencies are tiny compared to if you used Browserify on the md5-file module itself which results in a file around 500KB. Actually talking about Browserify, I think we have to consider what happens when someone will use that method of incorporating md5-file into the browser vs. using a <script> tag for example.

[blakegong]

Agreed. I myself mainly write React everyday so I guess I was underestimating the work required to make this package truly work in browser.

Guess we should support at least 3 different types of import?

• <script> tag
• require() as you have already done here
• ES6 import syntax

[roryrjb]

@blakegong yeah sounds good