The irony of this question should be apparent if you search for packages on npm today. How many "new projects" are there?
In answer, why not create a new project? NPM INC controls npm, hasn't contributed it to the node foundation (despite playing a pivotal role in creating said foundation), and hasn't been especially good at taking contributions recently.
A new project dodges all those existing problems, demonstrates alternate approaches are both feasible and compatible, and destroys the myth that npm is fundamental to node, rather than simply the first of many package management systems that take advantage of node's import semantics.
I wonder what reasons there are for not putting npm in a foundation in the same way that happened to Node itself? Surely such a critical piece of Node infrastructure shouldn't be controlled by a single (for-profit) company.
Its install process is very different from the one npm uses. E.g. just look into the node_modules directory produced by npm vs the one produced by ied.
Also the way it wires up dependencies (using symlinks) has been called "non humane design" by npm... so I thought it would be easier to just start a new project... it's not a lot of code/logic needed there actually... :)
Basically ied uses symlinks in order to resolve circular dependencies, while ied exploits the fact that require "falls back" in the directory structure.
Understood. Though I believe your comment (which compared ied with itself) should actually read:
> Basically ied uses symlinks in order to resolve circular dependencies, while npm exploits the fact that require "falls back" in the directory structure.
NPM has decided to risk the life of the entire Node ecosystem by taking on funding. Additionally, they aren't particularly good at npm--only after the much-awaited v3 has it approached a decent piece of software.
In answer, why not create a new project? NPM INC controls npm, hasn't contributed it to the node foundation (despite playing a pivotal role in creating said foundation), and hasn't been especially good at taking contributions recently.
A new project dodges all those existing problems, demonstrates alternate approaches are both feasible and compatible, and destroys the myth that npm is fundamental to node, rather than simply the first of many package management systems that take advantage of node's import semantics.