Consider adding a factory method

I know it’s “idiomatic”, but I’ve never been a fan of this style for requiring a class that will only be instantiated once:

const Conf = require('conf');
const config = new Conf();

What about adding a factory method like this:

const conf = require('conf').new();

or even:

const conf = require('conf')();

This could be supplemental to the existing instantiation behavior.

[mceachen]

somewhat related: this isn’t a great first impression:

$ npm install conf
$ node # NEW TOY OMG SO EXCITED
> const Conf = require('conf')
TypeError: Path must be a string. Received null
    at assertPath (path.js:7:11)
    at Object.dirname (path.js:697:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (..\node_modules\conf\index.js:13:24)
# sad trombone 😢

because node’s REPL has no module.parent:

$ node
> module.parent
undefined

(and exposing a constructor would let me feed conf what it needs)

My current environment:

$ node -v
v6.6.0
$ uname -a
MINGW64_NT-10.0 xps15 2.5.0(0.295/5/3) 2016-03-31 18:47 x86_64 Msys

[zeke]

These styles won’t work for ES2015 imports

Good point. Not on that 🚋 yet.