The node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

[rusi]

On Apr 16, 10:36 pm, Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2013.04.16 12:14, rusi wrote:> However combine it with your other statement
>
> >> Python's package  management is suboptimal (though it is being worked on),
>
> > and a different picture emerges, viz that *the ecosystem around the
> > language matters more than the language*
>
> It was a minor point, and while I think the ecosystem is important, I am not arguing that it is more important than the language itself.
> This discussion has much to do with ecosystems and little to do with languages, so I'm not sure what your point is here.

Just what I said: ecosystem matters.  We may or may not argue about
"more than language", but it surely matters. Some examples:

1. In the link that Roderick originally posted there is a long comment
that adds perl to the languages the author discussed. As a language
perl is… um well… its perl.  Yet when perl wins its because CPAN
wins.

2. Haskell as a language is very well designed. However its package
system -- cabal+hackage -- is completely broken.
Unfortunately more mindshare is taken in haskell to
-- fancy type sorcery
-- new syntax (eg holes)
-- compiling to more and more efficient code
-- etc
than setting right the package-mess. To be very correct here, its not
so much that cabal+hackage is a mess as that the haskell community
does not devote enough mindshare to it.

3. Linux: Steven was talking of the fact that firefox code is a mess.
I would wager that much of the code in heavy use in linux is a mess.
Yet linux works. Why? Apt.  Long before cloud-computng became a
buzzword, I could sit on my debian box and utter the incantation:
$ aptitude update; aptitude upgrade
and things would (mostly) keep working.

4. There was a recent question here: "How to install/uninstall
manpages with distutils/setuptools?" It seems to be a very basic
question. It's received no answer.  In case I am chided for fault-
finding without answering, let me say, I looked to see if I could
help.  Found nothing conclusive. Gave up.  If it makes me culpable, ok
I am contrite. Shouldn't the python community share some of the
contrition?

Terry wrote:
> The irony is that the author goes on to say that the node.js community
> 'works' because they all use the same infrastructure battery: git and
> git-hub ;-).

Its called the paradox of creativity: Constraints cultivate
creativity: http://www.keepwriting.com/tsc/paradox.htm