A quick test shows this to be _much_ faster than NPM 2 (Browserify ~8s vs ~27s using NPM 2). I've been on the look out for a faster NPM given it takes 30m to install dependencies for an application I work on :(
Unfortunately IED (Soon to be renamed "NOM") doesn't support Git dependencies :(
It's nice that it takes some ideas from Nix, but it would even nicer if the time spent would go directly into Nix ;)
I'm considering switching to npm2nix and Nix for my projects, because I got burned by NPM far too often. Also Nix can be used for all software, not only NPM stuff. With NixOS it also ties a nice "package", haha
Complexity isn't much of a concern since all dependencies should (ideally) me automatically managed by NPM.
The greater benefit is reduced duplication and reducing excessive folder nesting. The former saves space and the time required to download dependencies, the latter solves some serious issues with using NPM on windows.
Yes, I noticed that when I upgraded; spent several hours debugging before I found out that was the problem (I had both flat and nested, where prod used the old, and my tests used the new)
Unfortunately IED (Soon to be renamed "NOM") doesn't support Git dependencies :(