The DUB package manager

[John Colvin]

On Wednesday, 20 February 2013 at 11:12:30 UTC, Sönke Ludwig 
wrote:
> Since the discussion about yes or no regarding OS specific 
> package
> managers still goes on, IMO there is one argument that is far 
> more
> important than all technical or aesthetic aspects.
>
> A language specific, but cross-platform, package manager makes
> publishing and using published libraries a lot simpler for 
> /developers/.
> And since D wants to grow, it's extremely important to provide 
> new
> developers with the most comfortable and efficient development
> experience, so that they also stay and get productive after the 
> first looks.
>
> I think that package managers in Ruby, Python, 
> JavaScript/node.js were
> crucial in their growth. Without them, they probably wouldn't 
> have that
> rich ecosystem of libraries and tools that is available today 
> and is one
> of the key reasons why so many people choose those languages.
>
> Implementing an export function to turn a D package into a 
> variety of
> platform specific package formats is a possible option that 
> could close
> the gap and make installing applications also comfortable for 
> the end user.

I agree. In the end, you need developers before you can have 
end-users!

Also, developers often want to micro-manage the experience the 
end-user gets, including installers etc...

Look at python. Python has good package management, but it only 
gets used by developers. No end-user reaches for pip/easy_install 
to get the dependencies for Blender and no-one will, it all gets 
taken care of by OS-level package managers or is bundled with the 
installer. The end user of a piece of software should never have 
to know what language it is written in or have to get in involved 
in that languages own ecosystem.

End-users need language-agnostic and OS-specific, developers 
often benefit best from the opposite.