[SupLockDef]

Also....

Maven doesn't have "preinstall, install, post install", or " build.rs" for rust, executing arbitrary code during the installation.

The code that's executing with Maven is in your pom.xml, not some hidden code from a transient dependency.

That alone is a major design flaw in both npm and cargo.

Java is boring, because it works. People don't like boring stuff. It's more exciting to play the Russian roulette on each install!

[pkolaczk]

As a heavy user of Java I can assure you that Java is very very far from boring, especially when building it with maven or gradle. There are millions ways something can screw up the build. Rust (and Go too) in comparison is much more boring actually - it maybe I was just lucky, but the majority of stuff just builds with zero issues.

Especially the number of times I had to clean all the caches in order for maven and gradle to build the project is just far too high for me. It shouldn’t ever be needed if an ecosystem is meant to be considered boring. I feel like Java doesn’t build when I look at it wrong.

[robotnikman]

> I feel like Java doesn’t build when I look at it wrong.

Hah, too true! I guess it is boring in the fact that it is not as... move fast and break things... as NPM. But Java build systems are still certainly fun and challenging in their own ways.

[MattPalmer1086]

Yep, sounds boring!

[panzi]

How does Maven handle JNI? Is it also a build system for C/C++, or do packages with native bindings require manual build steps?

[panzi]

I googled a bit and found this snippet:

            <plugin>
                <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.1</version>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>Generate-shared-lib</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>exec</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <executable>bash</executable>
                            <arguments>
                                <argument>generate-lib.sh</argument>
                            </arguments>
                            <environmentVariables>
                                <JAVA_HOME>${env.JAVA_HOME}</JAVA_HOME>
                            </environmentVariables>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

At least with certain plug-ins Maven will execute arbitrary commands at build time. And if you need that to build native bindings it feels like a big hole. Granted, most projects don't need JNI, I guess.