Remove command-line program, change to being library-only

[evmar]

We have a bunch of bugs here that are various forms of "the command-line tsickle program doesn't do what I want". In practice, using tsickle well requires a driver program like the Angular compiler, or maybe https://github.com/theseanl/tscc .

I think we should consider removing our command-line interface entirely and instead say to use one of these other tools. Right now our CLI tempts people into trying it, but it doesn't really work, and we don't have resources to improve it.

[evmar]

Assigning to Martin for a decision; I can implement if you think it's right.

[evmar]

Some example bugs: #687 #742 #474

[mprobst]

I'm OK with that.

[evmar]

Do you think it's a good idea, though?

[mprobst]

Yes, I don't think there's value in src/main.ts; it's simply not working, and fixing it is indeed not worth it compared to pointing people to tscc.

[evmar]

CC @theseanl

[theseanl]

I'd be happy to work further on the CLI and getting more feedback. But as I understand, there are some ways to use tsickle via some Bazel rules, why not add pointers to that? It seemed that many build tools opensourced by Google is somehow involved with Bazel, so it seemed to be the "expected" way of using tsickle. Personally I couldn't find a comprehensive documentation on how to use tsickle and closure compiler with Bazel, and I'm eager to learn more about it.

[evmar]

@alexeagle is the bazel master. The rules_nodejs (https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs) project has our integration, but I think it doesn't wrap Closure compiler yet.

[alexeagle]

right, under Bazel we expect that tsc_wrapped will be the driver of the tsickle plugin.

I'm okay with removing the main.

[mprobst]

Alex, what's the authoritative documentation that we should link to? I'd imagine our README.md would say "Go here for tscc, go here for the bazel rules integration".

[alexeagle]

I don't think our documentation is sufficient, but tsickle is mentioned on https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/blob/master/docs/TypeScript.md and that's probably the right spot, unless we add a new high-level doc about Bazel+TS+Closure