[halostatue]

Because apt-get doesn’t exist on the system I use, and most system packagers can’t/won’t keep up with the rate of change of development, anyway.

CPAN, RubyGems, etc. all exist because system packaging systems are (a) specific to a particular distribution, (b) generally many versions behind the development versions, (c) really hard to get into unless you are already a system packager for a particular distribution, and (d) effectively don’t exist for two of the largest platforms where you will find users.

I’d suggest making some sort of meta-system packaging system that works for all the languages, but xkcd 927 (and I wouldn’t use it myself, anyway, because it would probably not install Ruby packages correctly and would solve things worse than NPM already does).

[alexginzburg]

using a system package manager does not mean that one needs to use a distribution's (debian, ubuntu, redhat, gentoo, arch, etc) mirror to pull the package, it does mean that you use an OS provided tool to manage all software on your machine.

- It does mean that the common libraries are installed once - conflicts between common libraries are more transparent - System tools make sure that package stays up-to date

[halostatue]

Except that you haven’t solved most of the problems that I pointed out by saying “use a system package manager” (and have introduced several new ones):

a. I maintain ~13 Ruby gems. I can generate new versions and verify their install on any system that I can run Ruby on. Under “use a system package manager”, I now have to maintain at least four unique package management formats (deb, RPM, emerge, Pacman) just for Linux distributions and at least one for the BSDs. Thanks, you’ve just increased my workload at least five-fold, although I no longer have to worry about Windows or macOS users (wait, I’m a macOS user).

b. Sure I can use a non-distribution mirror (like a PPA), but now you have to have at least six of those mirrors (see point 1) and, again, too bad about Windows and macOS users since they obviously aren’t smart enough to use an OS that has an in-built packaging manager.

c. In truth, you haven’t increased my package load five-fold, you’ve increased it much more than that. I’ve followed instructions for making debs and RPMs…and the only thing that works for me is using FPM because the system package managers are so bloody complex and built for a single particular use-case.

d. You still don’t have a solution for Windows or macOS users because neither of those OSes have system package managers, and no neither ports nor homebrew counts. RubyGems, pip, cabal, npm, etc. may increase the cognitive load but they work for people who don’t use Ubuntu Zany Zebra.

You’ve also introduced a new problem:

e. OS package managers (except probably nix) do not solve the multiple-installed-version problem. RubyGems allows (even encourages) multiple versions of a gem to be installed and applications (through their Bundler Gemfile) can lock to a particular version. I have packages with 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x releases where all three versions are still in use despite some backwards incompatibilities (mime-types 2.x dropped support for Ruby 1.8, deprecated some methods, and changed the default data format and loading mechanism; 3.x dropped support for Ruby 1.9 and removed the deprecated methods, and changed the default data format).

This is not possible in an OS package manager without renaming the installed library in some way. This is mostly fine when you‘re installing compiled software…but it’s not even perfect there. I’ve been working with language-specific package managers for a long time, and I’ve been dealing with how distribution package managers break some of the packages that I work with for just as long. I generally prefer the mess we have now to waiting for the perfect system package manager, especially since there are systems which will never get them.

[fixed formatting]