add some automatic watch/build/serve goodness

[jgravois]

resolves #650

added a new script npm run serve which:

• spins up a local webserver
• automatically rebuilds when a change is made inside the src directory
• launches debug/sample.html automagically

if anyone has any better ideas than this approach, they'd be warmly received. whatever we end up shipping, i can lay down another commit later to make sure the README includes documentation.

cc/ @paulcpederson

[patrickarlt]

You can actually make this a lot simpler. npm run watch & http-server -p 5678 -c-1 -o

-c-1 turns off caching. -o tells http-server to just open up the root of the web server which I think is fine I would rather have less dependencies.

You also don't need parallelshell. If you need to run multiple commands at once. Just separate them with & it works on both Mac and Windows.

[jgravois]

not sure what i was doing wrong, but for some reason in my initial testing watch and http-server both needed their own shell. perhaps because i was using a double ampersand? either way, your suggestion is much cleaner.

[patrickarlt]

the watcher and the server both need their own shell because they block subsequent commands from finishing so using && doesn't work but & does. Here is a handy reference:

• thing-1 && thing-2 - run thing-1 then run thing-2
• thing-1 & thing-2 - run thing-1 and thing-2 at the same time and combine the output

[jgravois]

both need their own shell because they block subsequent commands

word. thanks for taking the time to explain!

[jgravois]

thx for the feedback @patrickarlt. i had a feeling my initial proposal was a bit dependency heavy and i appreciate the help cleaning it up. i've incorporated your feedback in a new commit and squashed everything down.

i'll be happy to see #655 resolved after this gets merged.

[patrickarlt]

@jgravois http://blog.keithcirkel.co.uk/how-to-use-npm-as-a-build-tool/ is a really good reference.