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A critique of package managers

(www.gingerbill.org)
109 points gingerBill | 2 comments | 08 Sep 25 12:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.013s | source
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izzylan ◴[08 Sep 25 22:25 UTC] No.45174868[source]▶
I don't see the value in making it even harder to build software. I want to make things. Downloading a dependency manually and then cursing at the compiler because "it's right there! why won't it load!!" is just gonna make me want to build software less.

Anyone I want to work with on a project is going to have to have the same frustration and want to work on the project less. Only even more because you see they downloaded version 2.7.3-2 but the version I use is 2.7.3-1.

replies(2): >>45175555 #>>45176326 #
forrestthewoods ◴[09 Sep 25 01:27 UTC] No.45176326[source]▶
This is an argument for a good build system, not a package manager.
replies(2): >>45177049 #>>45182476 #
BobbyTables2 ◴[09 Sep 25 03:26 UTC] No.45177049[source]▶
These aren’t always separate.

Some distos might try to support multiple versions of a library. That could require installing it to different prefixes instead of the default. Thus, the build system will have to comprehend that.

replies(1): >>45178231 #
forrestthewoods ◴[09 Sep 25 06:34 UTC] No.45178231[source]▶
Not everything in the world revolves around Linux. Distros terrible choices around shared library architecture has nothing to do with build systems for most languages.
replies(1): >>45179809 #
01HNNWZ0MV43FF ◴[09 Sep 25 09:50 UTC] No.45179809[source]▶
True. The most popular Unix is after all macOS, followed shortly by WSL2
replies(1): >>45181602 #
1. justinrubek ◴[09 Sep 25 13:24 UTC] No.45181602[source]▶
There are way more servers running linux than there are macos installs. And wsl2 is linux.
replies(1): >>45186031 #
2. forrestthewoods ◴[09 Sep 25 18:13 UTC] No.45186031[source]▶
Number of servers isn’t the right metric imho.

Literally all code I write runs on Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux. In roughly that order of priority. No I do not and will not use WSL2, it’s an abomination.