[HN Gopher] If It Quacks Like a Package Manager
___________________________________________________________________
If It Quacks Like a Package Manager
Author : jandeboevrie
Score : 48 points
Date : 2026-03-08 11:27 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (nesbitt.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (nesbitt.io)
| paulddraper wrote:
| > If it has transitive execution, it's a package manager
|
| Not really.
|
| Spreadsheets, programming language functions, database triggers.
|
| To be more accurate, if it _downloads artifacts_ transitively it
| is a package manager.
| Spivak wrote:
| I could see a case being made that programming language
| functions, especially in ruby where everything is message
| passing, forms a package manager. A method might actually want
| to guarantee that when it sends a message foo that the code
| receiving it remains fixed.
|
| Being able to declare dependencies that granular might actually
| be great for doing refactors and upgrades. Maybe we accepted
| too easily that dependencies for a project are global.
| verdverm wrote:
| We sort of do by bundling them up and pinning them together
| at some version id.
| dataflow wrote:
| Not really, it's not about downloading. If it only works
| offline given the appropriate files, that's fine too. But a
| package manager needs to actually install and uninstall
| packages!
| verdverm wrote:
| On an aside, the MVS (minimum version selection) is an
| interesting and understandable algorithm for dependency
| resolution. Started from Go, CUE uses it now too.
|
| https://research.swtch.com/vgo-mvs
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2026-03-08 23:01 UTC)