I take neither side in a dependencies vs NIH war. I like using SQLite as a database, and I use Tk (of Tcl/Tk) as my user interface toolkit, for example. Neither

I take neither side in a dependencies vs NIH war. I like using SQLite as a database, and I use Tk (of Tcl/Tk) as my user interface toolkit, for example. Neither of those is going anywhere, they are both maintained, and I build them myself. I would argue that the right way to think about dependencies, as some have alluded to, is to do a risk/benefit analysis. On the benefit side, how much work would it take me to duplicate this component, how well will it suit my needs, and so on. On the risk side, everything from continued maintenance to security and licence issues (for both free/libre/open-source and proprietary components). Then risk/benefit asks for ways of ameliorating risk, such as by forking code, or paying for support. The right way to think of adding a dependency is to ask and answer questions like this prior to adding it. This is not the way that JavaScript developers used left_pad, they just said “it's in npm, so it's good.”