string support for timeouts

[devhawk]

We should consider adding support for strings like "2 days", "30s" by using the ms package.

Originally part of #449, but split off into a separate issue because #449 is a breaking change and this change is not

[demetris-manikas]

Shoot. I cannot import from ms no matter what.
Whatever the import is I get the following error

this module can only be referenced with ECMAScript imports/exports by turning on the 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' flag and referencing its default export

Which is on due to

"esModuleInterop": true, /* Emit additional JavaScript to ease support for importing CommonJS modules. This enables 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' for type compatibility. */
in tsconfig.

Also the ms package looks like it has been abandoned or at least not actively maintained.
Last stable version was released back in 2021.

I also tried to import the canary version, which is in canary state since 2021 too, to no avail.

any ideas?

[demetris-manikas]

@devhawk Any updates on this?

[devhawk]

This was originally @qianl15 suggestion. I don't know anything about the ms package myself

[qianl15]

I tested locally and it seems that we need to also add "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true to the tsconfig.json
Then use import ms from 'ms'; should work.

[demetris-manikas]

I did that but it kept complaining. I will retry and get back to you

[demetris-manikas]

I have created a PR ( #474) on this but I have to say I don't like the implementation at all but I did not manage any better.
I did not add the option in the sleepms as it's name is too specific (imagine calling sleepms("1m30s")).

The things I don't like ...

1. I would avoid introducing a so old package in the codebase (specially one that only provides convenience and not missing functionality) but that is on you. Also the user can import the package on it's own and call sleepms(ms('1m30s'))

2. To have a typed function I did the 'hack' of copying the types from the canary version but this can go away if you insist on adopting the ms package and don't approve of the 'hack'.

3. I don't like the interface sleep(durationSec: number | StringValue) and would probably hate sleep(durationSec: number | string)
   The former is hardly usable while the latter can be very misleading. Myself I would try to call sleep('1') believing it will sleep for a second as the name of the parameter implies.

All in all I suggest that the whole idea be dropped for now.

[qianl15]

Hi @demetris-manikas thanks for exploring this idea! I see the problems here and I agree that we should table this for now.