Consider Adopting Parcel

[cjkoepke]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe.
While necessary for certain projects, Webpack can be cumbersome and can take a while to build assets.

Describe the solution you'd like
Consider adopting Parcel as a quick way to simply analyze our entry file, and then build necessary assets on-the-fly, with little-to-no config.

Additional context
This is meant to be researched, but recent experience with the bundler has been amazing.

CC: @timwright12 @joesnellpdx

[nicholasio]

I like Parcel, but wondering if this wouldn't make it harder for projects that need to write custom Gutenberg blocks. @cjkoepke have you experimented using parcel to write Gutenberg blocks?

[cjkoepke]

@nicholasio Worth exploring, I'm not sure. Could be a problem but thanks for flagging.

[aaemnnosttv]

@nicholasio we've used it to build with blocks before 👍

[samikeijonen]

I have tested Parcel 6 months ago, and oh boy it's fast. However when I tested it, I wasn't able to do all the tasks it needs to do. I can't remember all the details what kind of assets did I have troubles.

At minimum it should have same functionality as current webpack setup. Support for

• JS
• CSS
• PostCSS
• Any assets like fonts, images, SVGs
• Gutenberg

[cjkoepke]

The main hurdle, as far as I can tell, is going to be images. They are not currently a supported asset type from Parcel, so we would need to create a plugin (or find one that is reliable) that handles those assets correctly.

The overhaul might not be worth the effort, but I think everything is doable here.