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Comment by erokar | Hacker News Reader

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erokar

Every time I use Python I miss NPM and package.json.

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Every time I use JavaScript/NPM/WebPack I miss my sanity.

last project i setup parceljs with yarn and is so easyyyy.. :) nvm is my day saver :)

LOL, hits too close to home.

You miss a package manager layered on top of the one already in your OS, one that's seemingly run by people with no clue what they're doing, is rife with security issues and can break your entire system as we saw today?

I have no clue why a sane person would run npm.

And yet millions do?

Millions of people believe in chakras, horoscopes, and homeopathy - argument from popularity is a logical fallacy for good reason. Consensus does not equal quality.

And those same millions have been halted simultaneously in development around the world by the removal of key packages due to namespacing issues. Or, today, we find that running the newest version of npm under sudo can rewrite file system permissions across the entire hierarchy.

What was that you were implying about how the choice of millions is probably pretty good?

Millions of people write their passwords down on little slips of paper next to their monitor.

Are you implying that because something is popular, it's therefore "good"?

pipenv is like npm for python and Pipfile works similar to package.json. There's even a Pipfile.lock

pipenv is more like yarn (same version locking concept)

If I remember correctly the newest npm does the same though.

Yeah, npm and yarn are pretty close at the moment. Yarn had a big advantage when it was first release, but npm seems to have caught up.

In what way is NPM and package.json different from using pip and requirements.txt?

npm installs to a local node_modules file by default, whereas you have to set up a virtualenv or something similar to get that from pip

My understanding is that's what pipenv gives you. You call pipenv install, it creates a venv if necessary and fills it. If you want to run tools within the env, you call pipenv run {command}.

Yes, you're absolutely right, I was comparing npm specifically to pip (without any additional tools like pipenv).

Why? What NPM can achieve but pip cannot? You can export requirements.txt easily. NPM downloads some many seemingly useless stuff, makes the node_modules directory so bloated, pip is like a breeze in comparison to that.

Hell, prior to pipenv being a thing, Python package management made me miss Maven of all things!

Not having done anything in python in a few years, it is nice to learn that it's catching up. It may be hoped that the npm-bashers will learn to appreciate the new features available for python.

For that flavor, maybe try:

    python3 -m pip install -t .pip ...
    export PYTHONPATH=".pip:$PYTHONPATH"

Use whatever directory name you prefer instead of .pip. Mucking with PYTHONPATH is a bit dirty.

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