[andai]

There's a funny angle to all this. There was an article last year where the author asked AI for a web app. It installed a gigabyte of node modules and crashed on startup.

He told it to calm down and just use php, it gave him 100 lines with no dependencies that worked the first time.

The Pieter Levels stack :)

Of course, this is ideal for solo entrepreneur. If you are employed, then you cannot finish it in 100 lines. How will you get paid to maintain it for the next ten years, and hire all your friends to help you?

I think this difference in incentives explains most of what we've been complaining about for the last twenty years.

[jollyllama]

You don't have to go whole-hog and go back to PHP, a reasonable Django application would suffice :)

But the point remains: the NPM monoculture is indefensible.

[andai]

That wasn't exactly my point, but it is a related one: building on top of stuff that's constantly shifting is a great way to ensure you will always have work to do.