[RFC] Decouple the CLI and the component templates

[rthor]

It would be great if we can remove the link between the package version and the templates that the CLI uses to generate new components. Currently, it's really awkward to change a template, say fix a typo, then all users need to update their global cra-generate version, which, tbh, no one does.

The solution

I propose that we move the templates to a different package and have cra-generate install a new version per project (think npm install --save-dev cra-generate-templates@latest). Doing it like this, we get a fresh version of the templates for each project that uses cra-generate and we can utilize npm's caching.

Here's how I imagine the flow:

Use in a new project:

$ cra-generate some-component

• This adds a dev-dependency to you package.json:

  { 
    "devDependency": {
      "cra-generate-templates": "[some version]"
    } 
  }  

• Then proceeds to generate the component based on this new template.

Use in a project that already installed the templates:

$ cra-generate some-component

• Checks if a new version of the templates has been released and prompts you to update to the latest version, or use the current version.
• Then proceeds to generate the component based on this new template.

Use offline:

• cra-generate should have a dependency on the templates itself and use in case of network loss.

Drawbacks

• It adds a devDependency to the project that has nothing to with building, running or testing it.
• Now we have more packages to maintain, will probably change this to a monorepo.

Other possible solutions

• Always download new templates:
  • Download directly from GitHub and simply use curl (or similar) to skip the dependency step, update checks and project overhead.
  • This will be harder to cache and more complicated to implement (I think).
  • The same project might start getting a new template for components that don't match existing ones (git tags might solve that though).
  • Is this even realistic?