[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #51966: npm/grunt watch/build task names are inconsistent and unintuitive

[WordPress Trac]

#51966: npm/grunt watch/build task names are inconsistent and unintuitive
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 Reporter:  iandunn                |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement            |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                 |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Build/Test Tools       |     Version:  5.1
 Severity:  normal                 |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch 2nd-opinion  |     Focuses:  javascript, docs
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Comment (by iandunn):

 That's really insightful, thanks! I hadn't heard about Zero Installs
 before, but I think that's a really interesting idea. I'm wondering if
 something like this would work:


 * Remove the `build/` folder entirely.
 * All `.php` files in `src/` stay the same. There's no longer a need to
 copy them over to `build/`.
 * Keep `src/js` the way it is
 * (optionally) create a `src/sass` folder (cc @helen, @melchoyce)
 * `src/js` files that don't require any preprocessing -- like
 `dashboard.js` -- could be removed from `src/js`. Then changes to them
 could be made directly to `src/wp-admin/js/bashboard.js` without having to
 worry about a build step.
 * We'd add built files like `src/wp-admin/js/foo.js` to `.gitignore`, so
 that devs don't have to locally manage duplicate `git add`'s etc.
 * We'd setup a A GitHub action to automatically compile & commit the built
 files to the repo on a `post-push` hook, like @ryelle
 [https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentyone/blob/8508233/.github/workflows/build.yml
 did for TwentyTwentyOne].

 So the typical dev workflow would be:

 1. If you're making changes to processed JS or SASS files, then you `npm
 run watch`. Otherwise, you don't have to run any watch task at all.
 1. Make changes to the files
 1. If they're processed JS/SASS files, `watch` would compile them from
 `src/js` into `src/wp-admin/js`, `src/wp-includes/js` etc.
 1. `git add` the PHP, `src/js` , or `src/sass` files. The built files
 won't be tracked locally, so you won't get bugged by them.
 1. `git push`
 1. If any `src/js` or `src/sass` files were pushed, the GH action would
 compile and commit them to the PR.

 Committers could `wget {PR URL}.diff`, and commit that. It'd include both
 `src/js` and `src/wp-admin/js` files.

 The release process would bundle up all of `src/` but ignore `src/js` and
 `src/sass`.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51966#comment:5>
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