How easy/difficult would it be to create a browser extension to launch and control a playground instance?

[jonathanbossenger]

My focus is on the developer experience. I love the idea of the WordPress playground, as it doesn't seem to have any specific requirements to run, other than some way to launch and control it.

The VS Code sidebar got me thinking, would it theoretically be possible to launch the playground from a browser extension? After all, browser extensions are, as far as I know, powered by HTML and JavaScript, as is the VS Code Sidebar.

I'm opening this discussion item so that we can discuss the idea, and the pros and cons.

[adamziel]

Absolutely @jonathanbossenger! What benefits do you see over a PWA? A few ideas:

• Zero-dependency Dev Env for WordCamps and new devs
• Access to local files, although but a website can have that too
• Offline-first (although a PWA would do the trick, too)
• …what else?

Also cc @danielbachhuber @dmsnell

[jonathanbossenger]

Honestly, I don't know what I don't know. 😀

There has been such a lot of activity here, that I've just this weekend discovered wp-now. So my question was very focused on the "limits" of the VS Code extension if you use a different code editor.

However, wp-now is also an option, and I've not really looked into how controllable the PWA is, so I think I need to spend a little more time researching all the options before I gather my thoughts properly here.

[adamziel]

Oh, I see! So a VS Code extension helps VS Code users and you’re looking for an equally easy workflow for everyone else. Yeah, a browser extension might do the trick and even spin an actual local server.

Technically, we’re missing a filesystem adapter for Emscripten. Also, there might be no way to install npm packages or run npm run dev. But if we leave that out of scope, the adapter should get us there. Maybe there’s an open source one somewhere?