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The culture around what should be in a package is vastly different. Node has left-pad. Debian has stuff like Apache. Sure, those are radical examples, but the b

The culture around what should be in a package is vastly different. Node has left-pad. Debian has stuff like Apache. Sure, those are radical examples, but the barrier to entry for Debian is pretty high (as is the standard for quality) vs npm where anyone can put whatever out there. How do things like left-pad even come to be widespread dependencies? Does the node development process involve a lot of "gee I wonder if someone made a package for (simple thing I need to do with a few lines of code)"?

ubernostrum 9y ago
JavaScript has things like left-pad because it doesn't have a standard library of modules for common tasks like other languages do, and because some of its built-in types don't have the same rich set of operations as other languages.
- Babooster 9y ago
  http://www.haneycodes.net/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how-to-program/ http://www.haneycodes.net/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how... is a nice article on the subject of left-pad. If you can't implement a left-pad in less than 5 minutes yourself, you don't know how to code.
  - Ajedi32 9y ago
    Just because you _can_ spend 5 minutes re-inventing the wheel in every project you write, doesn't mean you _should_.
chii 9y ago
But the large number of packages available, even for seemingly trivial features, are what makes NPM popular and successful. You jest at left-pad, but there's real value in simple libraries they might only be "a few lines of code" because an app is made up of a large amount of "simple features" strung together. Not to mention the code reuse factor. If npm took the route of debian's verification/certification, you might end up with no libs at all!
- dozzie 9y ago
  > You jest at left-pad, but there's real value in simple libraries they might only be "a few lines of code" Nicely said, but you omit the elephant in the room: that the dependencies have their cost, which is quite high and is rarely matched, much less offset, by the value of these "simple libraries".
deleted 9y ago
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ubernostrum 9y ago

JavaScript has things like left-pad because it doesn't have a standard library of modules for common tasks like other languages do, and because some of its built-in types don't have the same rich set of operations as other languages.

Babooster 9y ago
http://www.haneycodes.net/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how-to-program/ http://www.haneycodes.net/npm-left-pad-have-we-forgotten-how... is a nice article on the subject of left-pad. If you can't implement a left-pad in less than 5 minutes yourself, you don't know how to code.
- Ajedi32 9y ago
  Just because you _can_ spend 5 minutes re-inventing the wheel in every project you write, doesn't mean you _should_.

chii 9y ago

But the large number of packages available, even for seemingly trivial features, are what makes NPM popular and successful. You jest at left-pad, but there's real value in simple libraries they might only be "a few lines of code" because an app is made up of a large amount of "simple features" strung together. Not to mention the code reuse factor. If npm took the route of debian's verification/certification, you might end up with no libs at all!

dozzie 9y ago
> You jest at left-pad, but there's real value in simple libraries they might only be "a few lines of code" Nicely said, but you omit the elephant in the room: that the dependencies have their cost, which is quite high and is rarely matched, much less offset, by the value of these "simple libraries".

deleted 9y ago

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