Question: How to support both 0.10.7-insider and 0.10.8 with same package?

[daviwil]

Just released an update of the PowerShell extension and it seems I set my engine field in a way that blocks people using the Insider build from using it. Should I be using 0.10.7-insider as the engine so that semver allows 0.10.8 also?

[alexdima]

IMHO, I think we need to be smart about compatibility and not update or install an incompatible extension (given current running vscode instance version).

[daviwil]

Definitely, but there are cases like this where one package could work for both mainline and Insider builds. Would the alternative be a convention where extensions need a separate Insider version of their own? I can see some benefits to that approach but I think it'd create extra work for extension authors.

[unuunc]

should not this be like a range attribute , like supported from version a to b.

[joaomoreno]

@daviwil Code doesn't currently respect the engine at installation time. This will be fixed in February. Currently, it will always install the latest published version.

@alexandrudima What is the full allowed syntax of the engine value? Does it support ranges?

[SamVerschueren]

Node allows ranges as documented https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json#engines.

{ 
    "engines" : { 
        "node" : ">=0.10.3 <0.12" 
    }
}

Would be nice if it was supported the same way.

{ 
    "engines" : { 
        "vscode" : ">=0.10.3 <0.10.6" 
    }
}

[joaomoreno]

Related to commit c06d578

[joaomoreno]

Code will now only install compatible versions.

[daviwil]

Great, thank you!