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> I kind of wish that a mainstream language would just adopt git submodules as part of their de facto package management strategy and build the tools on top of

> I kind of wish that a mainstream language would just adopt git submodules as part of their de facto package management strategy and build the tools on top of it we need to make it livable. Every language has a package management system already. Git should be made easier to use, not harder. I see the utility of submodules to power users, but they're not so necessary at all, but increase the complexity of git by adding yet another abstract concept. Love you git, but you should be working on removing features, not adding them.

lilactown 8y ago
We're getting off on a tangent, but I actually think that dependency management makes way more sense to do in a VCS than some other tool provided by a specific language. Look at the cluster that is dependency management in JavaScript, Go, etc. Every ecosystem is solving the same problem over and over, and languages can live and die by the quality and capabilities of their package management system. It also sucks once you start building projects that are multi-language/ecosystem. It's why so many front-end technologies have just sucked it up and adopted NPM, because it has the most market share and continuing to bifurcate the package ecosystem is too cumbersome for consumers. It would be much better to solve it /once/, with a tool that provides the lower level constructs. Then tools could be built on top of that to serve specific needs & improve the UX. Maybe git submodules could be that? Whether it could or not, though, I do think that providing the ability to manage the versions of my dependencies in the same tool that I manage the versions of my own project... makes a lot of sense!
- chriswarbo 8y ago
  Whilst it's certainly a case of https://xkcd.com/927 https://xkcd.com/927 I find that Nix is very good for what you describe; there's also Guix but I've yet to use it. I think of them as "Make done right".

lilactown 8y ago

We're getting off on a tangent, but I actually think that dependency management makes way more sense to do in a VCS than some other tool provided by a specific language. Look at the cluster that is dependency management in JavaScript, Go, etc. Every ecosystem is solving the same problem over and over, and languages can live and die by the quality and capabilities of their package management system. It also sucks once you start building projects that are multi-language/ecosystem. It's why so many front-end technologies have just sucked it up and adopted NPM, because it has the most market share and continuing to bifurcate the package ecosystem is too cumbersome for consumers. It would be much better to solve it /once/, with a tool that provides the lower level constructs. Then tools could be built on top of that to serve specific needs & improve the UX. Maybe git submodules could be that? Whether it could or not, though, I do think that providing the ability to manage the versions of my dependencies in the same tool that I manage the versions of my own project... makes a lot of sense!

chriswarbo 8y ago
Whilst it's certainly a case of https://xkcd.com/927 https://xkcd.com/927 I find that Nix is very good for what you describe; there's also Guix but I've yet to use it. I think of them as "Make done right".