[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager t...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used
on Windows
vfox is a cross-platform version manager(similar to nvm, fvm,
sdkman, asdf-vm, etc.), extendable via plugins. It allows you to
different versions for different projects, different versions for
different shell. It also supports to lock runtime version for
project or shell and support for existing config files .node-
version, .nvmrc, .sdkmanrc for easy migration. Available Plugins:
https://vfox.lhan.me/plugins/available.html Supported Shell:
Powershell, Clink, Cmder, Bash, ZSH
Author : aooohan
Score : 75 points
Date : 2024-04-22 10:04 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| eclipsetheworld wrote:
| This looks really cool! Working on multiple projects with
| different versions before tools like pyenv or nvm existed was a
| real challenge. As someone working with different programming
| languages as well, this tool looks like the next logical step.
| devmor wrote:
| pyenv is still the best solution to this problem I have yet to
| see - wish it existed for everything
| tyingq wrote:
| It does have upsides. Though the python runtime version
| management story suffers from being fragmented. It gets
| complex if you add poetry, IDEs, different types of shells
| (gitbash, power shell, zsh, etc), things that have their own
| ideas of environments (Jupyter as one example).
| aooohan wrote:
| Honestly, the python plugin is a bit problematic on Windows
| at the moment, the next plugin version should fix that.
|
| But on unix it is also built using python-build. For me, a
| light python user, there is no difference between using vfox
| and using pyenv.
| rjzzleep wrote:
| asdf works great for that purpose. And you can either use a
| single .tool-versions file or enable legacy support for
| compatibility with pyenv rbenv etc.
|
| Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms
|
| https://asdf-vm.com/
| aooohan wrote:
| But it does nothing for Windows.
| magnio wrote:
| I wanted to like asdf but 1. it's slow, and 2. not available
| on Windows proper (non-WSL). Same with mise
| (https://github.com/jdx/mise) which builds on asdf.
|
| Volta exists but alas, it's only for JavaScript.
| aooohan wrote:
| I've used all of these tools in conjunction with my own
| usage habits, which is why I'm developing vfox from scratch
| rather than based on asdf. so the issue at hand for vfox is
| the need to rebuild the plugin ecology. There's no way to
| utilise off-the-shelf asdf plugins.
| rjzzleep wrote:
| I just looked at your plugin-template. This sounds good
| actually. Writing asdf plugins can be quite nasty. I like
| the approach of adding a lua dsl for plugin generation,
| not sure I like the dsl itself.
| gorjusborg wrote:
| I know asdf doesn't work in windows outside of msys/WSL,
| but I've never seen evidence that it is 'slow'.
| beeboobaa3 wrote:
| https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf/issues/290
| tiffanyh wrote:
| Cygwin?
|
| I'm not exactly understanding the use case for this.
|
| Is this like a modern day Cygwin?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin
| aooohan wrote:
| No, these are two completely different tools.
|
| Compared to Cygwin, vfox is just a small tool which is more
| like scoop.
|
| Simply put, while scoop can only install the latest version,
| vfox can install any version, and has some extra features for
| project development, such as using different versions for
| different projects, automatic switching between versions, and
| so on.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| This looks super interesting, I've been thinking of building
| something like this for a while. A list of available runtimes
| would be nice to have. Thanks for sharing.
| ahai wrote:
| This management tool vfox looks very flexible, especially when it
| comes to plugin builds, I found that it already supports
| versioning of a lot of major software, and software that I don't
| use often can be built very quickly according to the manual and
| without having to upgrade the tool's version, it looks very silky
| smooth, and also supports multiple platforms, which is going to
| be very easy to use. I can't wait to use it and hopefully it will
| help me be more efficient.
| happyweasel wrote:
| Can someone please explain to me what this does? I have 25y exp
| in the industry but I did not Understand the use cases by reading
| the GitHub page..
| newzisforsukas wrote:
| > A cross-platform and extendable version manager with support
| for Java, Node.js, Flutter, .Net & more
|
| Seems pretty clear to me?
| Dobbs wrote:
| You are working on project A, and project B. Project A uses
| python 2.6, project B uses python 3. You want a simple way to
| switch back and forth without reinstalling everything every
| time you switch between them. This setups a way to quickly and
| if I'm understanding correctly automatically switching between
| the two versions of the tool.
|
| Replace python with many other tools from Java, node, etc.
| httpsterio wrote:
| it allows you to install multiple versions of different code
| compilers and interpreters and change which version is used.
|
| so for example you can install nodejs lts and latest side by
| side and then easily swap which version is currently used when
| running node.
|
| There are already tools like nvm (node version manager) that
| does the same but this one works for multiple tools instead of
| just one.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| It's a tool for managing environments for side-by-side installs
| of different versions of developer tools. Say you've got
| multiple projects you are working on and some need Node v18 and
| others Node v20 and some of each need Python 3.10 or Python
| 3.11 depending. You can handle switching side-by-side Node
| installs with a tool called nvm and there are lots for side-by-
| side Python switching (pyenv, pip env, conda, so many more),
| but maybe sometimes you want to manage both together ("this
| project uses Node v18 and Python 3.11"). This a tool for doing
| that combined development environment switching, supporting
| plugins for a number of ecosystems like Node and Python.
|
| It's an alternative approach to what containers do. (Or an
| alternative to strict version policies such as "all Node and
| Python should be done with current LTS, no exceptions".)
|
| There are similar tools on Linux, so the noteworthy thing about
| this one is it is Windows native.
| vbezhenar wrote:
| I just unpack node to different folders and set PATH. Why
| would I need any tool for that?
|
| Most languages work that way just fine. Java, node, python,
| go. The only bad player that I've found is Rust, its
| distribution is absolute mess.
| swozey wrote:
| "Why make my life easier?"
|
| I deal with _hundreds_ of different repos /projects that
| use various versions of various runtimes and I have to
| switch versions sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes
| multiple times a week.
|
| Why would I want to unpack an entire language runtime into
| ANOTHER directory when I can enter the directory and write
| "nvm use system"? And if I want to install a specific
| version of node, without having to dig around for the url
| on nodejs' website I write "nvm install 21.7.3" and it
| installs it. Then I use it.
|
| Like, it's practically weaponized incompetence to just dig
| your head in the sand and not use these practically
| standardized tools that everyone else has been using for
| 15+ years. Do you dislike using package managers as well?
| Apt? Nix?
|
| I don't feel like dealing with HNs terrible formatting
| system but this is how much work I do to install and change
| versions of one runtime. I deal with TONS of runtimes
| throughout the week.
|
| Also this is just one runtime, I also have to deal with
| python, ruby, go, terraform and many other versions so
| these "aggregate" runtime version managers like asdf etc
| are awesome.
|
| ######
|
| -> (base) workspace nvm list
|
| -> system
|
| iojs -> N/A (default)
|
| node -> stable (-> N/A) (default)
|
| unstable -> N/A (default)
|
| -> (base) workspace nvm use system
|
| Now using system version of node: v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)
|
| -> (base) workspace nvm install 21.7.3
|
| Downloading and installing node v21.7.3... Downloading
| https://nodejs.org/dist/v21.7.3/node-v21.7.3-darwin-
| arm64.ta...... ############################################
| ###########################################################
| #####################################################
| 100.0% Computing checksum with sha256sum Checksums matched!
|
| Now using node v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)
|
| Creating default alias: default -> 21.7.3 (-> v21.7.3)
|
| -> (base) workspace nvm use 21.7.3
|
| Now using node v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)
| wongarsu wrote:
| Suppose you have one project that only works with the newest
| Node 20, and another only works with Node versions 16-18. So
| you want a tool that takes care of installing both versions and
| gives you an easy way to switch between them, either globally
| or only for the current shell. Maybe with some autodetection
| via config files that can be put in the project folder.
|
| That's basically this. But not bespoke for node (like nvm) or
| python (like pyenv) or protobuf, but as one tool that promises
| to do this for all your tools
| lxe wrote:
| Curious what your experience is. I'm guessing there are dev
| cultures where tooling versions never have to change across
| projects, which has its pros and cons.
|
| For most of my career at large tech orgs working with
| node.js/frontend stack, python, go, and even java, I always
| needed things like conda, nvm, etc...
|
| Heck, even working with C (and CUDA), I would love to have an
| easy way to switch system-wide C/CXX compiler versions.
| happytoexplain wrote:
| Thanks for asking the question I am perpetually too embarrassed
| to ask. As somebody who spends 95% of my time doing native
| mobile, I rarely have to think about this problem. I'm sure
| "runtime version manager" resolves to a specific idea for most
| people, but it was too general for me to know what it was
| referring to, even after reading the elevator pitch (my first
| thought was: like Docker?).
|
| This happens to me all the time. I wasn't formally educated and
| didn't spend my formative years around computer people. So I
| have holes in my knowledge and misunderstand parlance if it's
| not specific to my personal 10% of the software world. E.g. in
| the beginning, it took me a few years to realize that when
| people say "frontend", they virtually always mean _web_
| frontend.
| Kuinox wrote:
| I do not understand the usecase for dotnet, since the dotnet SDK
| self select the correct version to run the project. You never
| need to change the version yourself. On my current machine:
| PS C:\Users\username> dotnet --list-sdks 7.0.408
| [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 8.0.101 [C:\Program
| Files\dotnet\sdk] 8.0.104 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
| 8.0.204 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
| 8.0.300-preview.24118.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
|
| IMO it's a better way to handle this sort of problem: the SDK
| self select which version should run, according to your project
| config.
| AaronFriel wrote:
| For runtimes with tooling like .NET has, it's a niche use case.
|
| At $dayjob, we have to support non-current compilers/SDKs for
| five different languages and runtimes where our tool will
| invoke (shell out, often) the CLIs for those tools. When
| triaging a bug report, it's great to have a version manager to
| use exactly the customer's version of the CLI.
|
| Likewise, we need to make sure all of our examples and
| templates build even if the user has an old version, and the
| surest way to validate that is to hide newer CLIs and tools,
| and to test on the range of binaries that a customer could have
| installed.
| lxe wrote:
| Killer features are 1. windows support, and 2. reading .tool-
| versions file, meaning that you can migrate from asdf with no
| issues.
| ddsgtuuuu wrote:
| What are the benefits of this over dev containers? (I just do BE
| and web stuff, so maybe it's just not for my use case)
| Onavo wrote:
| The battle of Rust versus Go
|
| https://github.com/jdx/mise
| 2genders35117 wrote:
| Are you lonely? Do u want an AI girlfriend?
| https://discord.gg/elyza izruVKddBblFDpzrW
| 2genders14511 wrote:
| hi are u lonely want ai gf?? https://discord.gg/elyza
| pzvnzsJiZViwZdtwF
| 2genders10340 wrote:
| Are you lonely? Do u want an AI girlfriend?
| https://discord.gg/elyza wqndofmherECCCzlg
| 2genders12597 wrote:
| hi are u lonely want ai gf?? https://discord.gg/elyza
| EAqsEtepmxSwCUYhY
| 2genders23409 wrote:
| Are you lonely? Do u want an AI girlfriend?
| https://discord.gg/elyza jnBKduUnYkNOzBBRg
| 2genders17675 wrote:
| hi are u lonely want ai gf?? https://discord.gg/candyai
| RJmuUWuISbMALLDMr
| 2genders47485 wrote:
| Are you lonely? Do u want an AI girlfriend?
| https://discord.gg/elyza -- FOLLOW THE HOMIE
| https://twitter.com/hashimthearab mIgiFSGxdSliyWUvU
| 2genders35412 wrote:
| hi are u lonely want ai gf?? https://discord.gg/elyza -- FOLLOW
| THE HOMIE https://twitter.com/hashimthearab srqJcQqdKujqxRApC
| 2genders22571 wrote:
| hi are u lonely want ai gf?? https://discord.gg/elyza
| PmDTADLWYIadqkijn
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-04-22 23:01 UTC)