Ever wanted to just give someone a single .js file, but also wanted to pull in a Node module? Fret no more!

standalone.js

#!/usr/bin/env node

/*

Node script are kind of cool, but they are hard to low-tech write a Node script for someone and give it to them.
Sure you can publish a package to NPM, set the binary flag, go through some house keeping... but sometimes that's just
not worth the effort.

So: can you distribute a Node script that will install it's own modules from a single file?

Yes: with PERL.

Steps:

  1. Declare modules to install with single line comments + two dollar signs. This is shell script code executed
     on the user's machine
  2. Test your require statements in some kind of try / catch block. On catch output a shell command the user
     should run.

This is not as slick as Groovy's Grab (http://docs.groovy-lang.org/latest/html/documentation/grape.html), but
it makes NPM scripts a single file install (assume you have PERL installed.)
*/

// ThIRD PARTY MODULES YOU SHOULD INSTALL OR USE MY HANDY SCRIPT TO
// ============================================================================

// $$ npm install lodash
// $$ npm install async

// ============================================================================

const process = require('process')

try {
    require('lodash')
    require('async')
} catch (err) {
    console.log("# modules may not be installed. To auto install these modules execute the following shell script")
    console.log("cat standalone.js | perl -e 'while(<>) { if (/\\/\\/\\W?\\$\\$(.+)/) { print($1); print(system($1)) }}'")
    process.exit()
}

const _ = require('lodash')

_.forEach( ["hello", "world"], (e) => console.log(e) )