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1369 points universesquid | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.21s | source
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stathibus ◴[] No.45169926[source]
As an outsider to the npm ecosystem, reading this list of packages is astonishing. Why do js people import someone else's npm module for every little trivial thing?
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austin-cheney ◴[] No.45170926[source]
I can provide you with some missing background as I was a prior full time JavaScript/TypeScript developer for 15 years.

Most people writing JavaScript code for employment cannot really program. It is not a result of intellectual impairment, but appears to be more a training and cultural deficit in the work force. The result is extreme anxiety at the mere idea of writing original code, even when trivial in size and scope. The responses vary but often take the form of reused cliches of which some don't even directly apply.

What's weird about this is that it is mostly limited to the employed workforce. Developers who are self-taught or spend as much time writing personal code on side projects don't have this anxiety. This is weird because the resulting hobby projects tend to be substantially more durable than products funded by employment that are otherwise better tested by paid QA staff.

As a proof ask any JavaScript team at your employment to build their next project without a large framework and just observe how they respond both verbally and non-verbally.

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IshKebab ◴[] No.45171425[source]
Not my experience at all. It's more like a) JS devs view NPM packages as a mark of pride and so they try to make as many as possible (there are people proud of maintaining hundreds of packages, which is obviously dumb), and b) people are lazy and will take a ready-made solution if it's available, and c) there are a lot of JavaScript developers.

The main reasons you don't see this in other languages is they don't have so many developers, and their packaging ecosystems are generally waaay higher friction. Rust is just as easy, but way higher skill level. Python is... not awful but it's definitely still a pain to publish packages for. C++, yeah why even bother.

If Python ever official adopts uv and we get a nice `uv publish` command then you will absolutely see the same thing there.

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1. pixl97 ◴[] No.45173982[source]
It seems in some large businesses code ownership is an issue too.

If you NPM import that's now part of your SCA/SBOM/CI to monitor and keep secure.

If you write code, it's now your problem to secure and manage.