Separate packages for precompiled binaries

[rtsao]

Both lightningcss and esbuild publish prebuilt binaries as individual npm packages which are declared as optionalDependencies. This technique allows package managers to skip downloading the binaries for irrelevant architectures/platforms.

It would be great if @parcel/watcher used the same approach. The current method is a hurdle for projects seeking to minimize the size/cost of dependencies.

I think a sensible starting place might be the GitHub Actions workflows for lightningcss or esbuild. Happy to help contribute

Related:

• [Bug?]: Yarn downloads irrelevant optional dependencies (e.g. for a different OS) yarnpkg/berry#3317
• Different strategy for installing platform-specific binaries evanw/esbuild#789
• Support @parcel/watcher vitejs/vite#13593

[devongovett]

Yes, this has been on my list for a long time, but I haven't had time to work on it. If you're interested, it would be an awesome contribution!