Provide the ability to specify dependencies on a per-platform basis

[brettcannon]

It would be great if an extension's depedencies could be platform-specific. For instance, the Python extension has Pylance as an optional dependency. But on the web, having Pylance be optional doesn't make sense as it provides all features for the Python extension on that platform.

We contemplated creating a custom package.json for the web platform, but Settings Sync in this situation would lead to an issue for users who chose to uninstall Pylance on desktop.

[isidorn]

We do not recommend extensions to have different package.json content per platform.
I do see your use case though and an alternative approach would be to introduce when context for extension dependencies.

@sandy081 @aeschli what do you think? Do you have other ideas?

[sandy081]

Not sure when context might work as the extensions are controlled in different process (shared, renderer, extension host) and we do not have same contexts every where. Other option would be to add platform semantics to dependencies. For eg.,

"extensionDependencies": [
    {
      "id": "ms-python.vscode-pylance",
      "platforms": ["-web"]
    },
    "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint"
  ]

We contemplated creating a custom package.json for the web platform, but Settings Sync in this situation would lead to an issue for users who chose to uninstall Pylance on desktop.

I agree that it is not recommended to have different package.jsons per platform. But I do not understand how settings sync will uninstall Pylance on desktop? Settings Sync does not respect extension pack or dependencies. It just sync extension by extension.

Can you please explain more why python extension does not want pylance to be part of python in web? What are the consequences of having it?

CC: @alexdima

[brettcannon]

But I do not understand how settings sync will uninstall Pylance on desktop?

It's not uninstall, it's re-installing Pylance when a user may have uninstalled it on desktop perviously. So the scenarios I'm concerned about is:

1. User installs the Python extension on desktop, which brings in Pylance.
2. They uninstall Pylance on desktop.
3. They install the Python extension on web which brings in Pylance as a required dependency (if we make this change).
4. Settings Sync sees Pylance installed on web, and so reinstalls it on desktop.

[sandy081]

Ah I see. So Python has hard dependency on Pylance in web.

In that case, Settings Sync will always brings in Pylance on desktop irrespective of how you define dependencies.

[alefragnani]

Hi,

Any news about this? I'm facing a similar issue once my Pascal extension depends on my Pascal Formatter extension (defined using extensionDependencies entry in package.json).

I'm trying to adapt my Pascal extension to work on the web, and because the Formatter wouldn't be available on the web, it makes no sense to install/updated it either.

Thank you

[isidorn]

@alefragnani so far no news here. Sorry.

[alefragnani]

@isidorn thanks for the update. No Pascal on the web, for now 😄

[lambdageek]

Now that ms-vscode.wasm-wasi-core exists (https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2023/06/05/vscode-wasm-wasi), it would be quite nice if I, as an extension author, could say "On the web, I depend on WASI; on the desktop I depend on [some extension providing a native runtime]" in my package.json file.

[vscodenpa]

We closed this issue because we don't plan to address it in the foreseeable future. If you disagree and feel that this issue is crucial: we are happy to listen and to reconsider.

If you wonder what we are up to, please see our roadmap and issue reporting guidelines.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy coding!