[tor-bugs] #20405 [Metrics/metrics-lib]: create metrics-tools with all of the index.json processing code as first content

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#20405: create metrics-tools with all of the index.json processing code as first
content
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 Reporter:  iwakeh               |          Owner:  karsten
     Type:  enhancement          |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium               |      Milestone:  metrics-lib 1.5.0
Component:  Metrics/metrics-lib  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                       |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:                       |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by karsten):

 Couple of thoughts:

  - We might consider metrics-lib as the library to facilitate data
 exchange between CollecTor and other applications/services processing
 CollecTor data.

  - As a result, we could grant CollecTor access to implementation packages
 of metrics-lib that applications/services should not touch.  There's a
 tight coupling between CollecTor and metrics-lib anyway, so we wouldn't
 have to inform "those other CollecTor devs over there" to update their
 code, because we're deprecating a feature.

  - Before we start a new library, we should look at what functionality
 we're currently missing and whether that would fit into metrics-lib.
 Examples are date formatting and parsing, which could be solved by either
 introducing a new date class in metrics-lib instead of passing `long`
 values around, or it could be solved by providing a utilities class for
 processing those `long` values.  Another example is fingerprint handling,
 where we'd provide methods for calculating the digest, for converting from
 hex to base64, and so on.  Maybe we'll end up with a very short list for
 the new library that we decide it's not worth creating one; at the price
 of making metrics-lib more powerful.  That being said, if something
 doesn't fit in, we shouldn't force it.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/20405#comment:2>
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