`plugin install` is slow and brittle

[lionelvillard]

currently it relies on npm install which has its issues.

In order to speed this up, what about trying to download a distribution package stored in github release. The installation steps would be:

• run npm view <packagename> repository.url version
• if url exists, try dowloading `/releases/download//shell-plugin.zip
• if download succeeded, unzip in the user shell plugin
• otherwise use npm install

Suggestions?

[starpit]

what if the plugin has its own package.json dependencies?