[coldtea]

>Python's "batteries included" approach of a large standard library was a great asset in the days before package managers but these days I think it would be better to start with a much leaner stdlib and add things in more stringently.

I think that package managers or not, the "batteries included" approach is great, because it leads to most of the code for useful things already available, and also helps third party packages be smaller (since they can depend on things available in the standard lib).

Imagine 3 different packages, for example, each bringing its own different json parser depedency -- as opposed to all leveraging the included json package.

That's how you get no community standards but tons of packages for the same basic things in slightly different ways, each with 20%-30% adoption.

That's also how you get 1GB node_modules folders.

That's also how you have the "leftpad" situation.