Bump Node.js used in GitHub workflows to 18

[pmeinhardt]

Node.js 18 is the current, active Node.js version slated to enter LTS in
a couple of days on October 25 (2022):

https://github.com/nodejs/release#release-schedule

[pmeinhardt]

Alternatively, the value for node-version could be set to lts/* or current (as per https://github.com/actions/setup-node#usage) to avoid having to (remember to) update this from time to time – at the expense of future builds starting to break due to version incompatibilities (which might even be considered desirable). Thoughts?

[klappradla]

I like the idea of switching to lts and maybe even combining that with a .nvmrc which points out to use lts for development. The tickety tick repo has a similar setup and it's the - for now - only place where this package is used.

Doing the switch to lts in tickety tick decreased some of the maintenance efforts there from what I remember.

I'd therefore vote for lts instead of 18. But happy about more opinions 👀

[pmeinhardt]

Sweet @klappradla. I'll update this PR to switch to lts/* instead (and will add a .nvmrc).

Some additional findings:

While checking the setup-node action's documentation on adding a version file I saw there is some discussion around a .node-version file instead of .nvmrc. I personally like that the name is much clearer and it neatly aligns with other version file conventions such as .ruby-version and .python-version. Unfortunately nvm - as of now - does not have support for this and might never have. Its maintainer raises some concerns over lacking standardization and "fluid" version identifiers like lts/* in particular seem to not be supported by all Node.js version managers.

I still think your suggestion of having a .nvmrc version file is valuable. Both because a lot of developers use nvm and because it also provides a single place to inspect and update the desired Node.js version (with the GitHub workflow files referencing the file). This seems like a worthwhile improvement.

For additional reading, see:

• https://github.com/actions/setup-node/blob/main/docs/advanced-usage.md#node-version-file
• https://github.com/shadowspawn/node-version-usage
• Agree on a standard format for a .node-version file? nodejs/version-management#13

[klappradla]

Perfect ✨

I'd of course also prefer .node-version as a filename, but as long as it's discoverable and readable by version managers and Co, I don't have super strong feelings.

I'm not even using nvm, but if I remember correctly, asdf can also work with the lts identifiers.