103

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

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

It's not that it's a bad idea, it's more that it's basically impossible at this point.

Bazel can't use Cargo, CMake and so on for downloading & building packages because it is trying to do cross-language builds the right way - a single build graph that includes everything. No other third party package managers/build tools actually exposed their build graphs - only commands to perform builds, which are too coarse for Bazel.

To put it simply, its necessary if you are doing things at the scale of Bazel.

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026

103 points (98.1% liked)

Programming

28295 readers

154 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Follow the programming.dev instance rules
Keep content related to programming in some way
If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

snowe@programming.dev

Ategon@programming.dev

UlrikHD@programming.dev

bugsmith@programming.dev

Spyro@programming.dev