Hey folks, I feel like we're in a bit of a dependency hell, and I feel that it's because there are two distinct worlds of Cordova that use the same version space: the run-time world, and the CLI-time world. For example a runtime change in Windows that bumps cordova-windows from 4.x to 5.x also bumps the tools from 5.x to 6.x, even though nothing changed as far as the tools are concerned.
Our current dependency chain works (and correct me if I'm wrong) this way (where "->" means "depend on"): Plugins -> Platforms and Tools Tools -> Platforms and cordova-common Platforms -> cordova-common I'm at a loss about how we restructure dependencies such that version updates don't cascade up the dependency chain. Moreover, cordova-common seems like a trap: platforms can *still* have different cordova-common versions and then we have all sorts of fun bugs. It seems like the easiest thing to do is to make the CLI work with *everything* and stand alone, and then to only leave these dependencies: Plugins -> Platforms Platforms -> cordova-common That way the CLI only needs to change when we see it doesn't work, not when versions of things change. That is, the CLI changes as it pleases, never explicitly "pinning" anything, and the "plugin/platform add" commands can do their magic to make sure they fetch compatible versions. Another note here is this: since we're already specifying versions for platforms and plugins, can't we just put them into the package.json of an app and then just get "plugin/platform add" install from local node_modules by default? This is just my take on the problem. What do you folks think? Kindly, Dmitry
