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Why do so many programming languages have their own package manager? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 weeks ago by DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64685863

Lots of programming languages have their own package manager, separate from the distribution or OS package manager.

Going loosely from the TIOBE index:

Python has Pip

C# has NuGet

Javascript has npm for Node.js

Visual Basic also uses NuGet

R has a repository of packages that can be installed by running install.packages("something") in R

Rust has Cargo/Crates

Go has the go get command

Swift has its own package manager swift package

Ruby has RubyGems

Java has Maven and Gradle (not sure if they are full package managers, or build automation tools with dependency resolution)

PHP has Composer for managing libraries and dependencies

C and C++ are the only exceptions I can think of, off the top of my head; libraries are managed by, and coupled to, the operating system

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[-] Pamasich@kbin.earth 3 points 3 weeks ago

Additionally, windows and Mac are also targets and they don't have built in package managers.

Windows does have a built in package manager: winget.

[-] Feyd@programming.dev 8 points 3 weeks ago

Sure, but it's only 6 years old, much newer than every one in this post, to my knowledge only has applications rather than libraries, and sources packages from the windows store or the community repository which is just manifests rather than the actual code or binaries.

In other words you're technically correct, but it's rather irrelevant

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026

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