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Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

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Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#11

Post by aooohan »

rjzzleep wrote: post #8
eclipsetheworld wrote: post #2

This looks really cool! Working on multiple projects with different versions before tools like pyenv or nvm existed was a real challenge. As someone working with different programming languages as well, this tool looks like the next logical step.

asdf works great for that purpose. And you can either use a single .tool-versions file or enable legacy support for compatibility with pyenv rbenv etc. Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms https://asdf-vm.com/

But it does nothing for Windows.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#12

Post by magnio »

rjzzleep wrote: post #8
eclipsetheworld wrote: post #2

This looks really cool! Working on multiple projects with different versions before tools like pyenv or nvm existed was a real challenge. As someone working with different programming languages as well, this tool looks like the next logical step.

asdf works great for that purpose. And you can either use a single .tool-versions file or enable legacy support for compatibility with pyenv rbenv etc. Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms https://asdf-vm.com/

I wanted to like asdf but 1. it's slow, and 2. not available on Windows proper (non-WSL). Same with mise (https://github.com/jdx/mise) which builds on asdf.

Volta exists but alas, it's only for JavaScript.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#13

Post by aooohan »

magnio wrote: post #12
rjzzleep wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

asdf works great for that purpose. And you can either use a single .tool-versions file or enable legacy support for compatibility with pyenv rbenv etc. Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms https://asdf-vm.com/

I wanted to like asdf but 1. it's slow, and 2. not available on Windows proper (non-WSL). Same with mise ( https://github.com/jdx/mise ) which builds on asdf. Volta exists but alas, it's only for JavaScript.

I've used all of these tools in conjunction with my own usage habits, which is why I'm developing vfox from scratch rather than based on asdf. so the issue at hand for vfox is the need to rebuild the plugin ecology. There's no way to utilise off-the-shelf asdf plugins.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#14

Post by ahai »

This management tool vfox looks very flexible, especially when it comes to plugin builds, I found that it already supports versioning of a lot of major software, and software that I don't use often can be built very quickly according to the manual and without having to upgrade the tool's version, it looks very silky smooth, and also supports multiple platforms, which is going to be very easy to use. I can't wait to use it and hopefully it will help me be more efficient.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#15

Post by gorjusborg »

magnio wrote: post #12
rjzzleep wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

asdf works great for that purpose. And you can either use a single .tool-versions file or enable legacy support for compatibility with pyenv rbenv etc. Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms https://asdf-vm.com/

I wanted to like asdf but 1. it's slow, and 2. not available on Windows proper (non-WSL). Same with mise ( https://github.com/jdx/mise ) which builds on asdf. Volta exists but alas, it's only for JavaScript.

I know asdf doesn't work in windows outside of msys/WSL, but I've never seen evidence that it is 'slow'.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#17

Post by newzisforsukas »

happyweasel wrote: post #16

Can someone please explain to me what this does? I have 25y exp in the industry but I did not Understand the use cases by reading the GitHub page..

> A cross-platform and extendable version manager with support for Java, Node.js, Flutter, .Net & more

Seems pretty clear to me?

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#18

Post by Dobbs »

happyweasel wrote: post #16

Can someone please explain to me what this does? I have 25y exp in the industry but I did not Understand the use cases by reading the GitHub page..

You are working on project A, and project B. Project A uses python 2.6, project B uses python 3. You want a simple way to switch back and forth without reinstalling everything every time you switch between them. This setups a way to quickly and if I'm understanding correctly automatically switching between the two versions of the tool.

Replace python with many other tools from Java, node, etc.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#19

Post by httpsterio »

happyweasel wrote: post #16

Can someone please explain to me what this does? I have 25y exp in the industry but I did not Understand the use cases by reading the GitHub page..

it allows you to install multiple versions of different code compilers and interpreters and change which version is used.

so for example you can install nodejs lts and latest side by side and then easily swap which version is currently used when running node.

There are already tools like nvm (node version manager) that does the same but this one works for multiple tools instead of just one.

Re: Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows

#20

Post by WorldMaker »

happyweasel wrote: post #16

Can someone please explain to me what this does? I have 25y exp in the industry but I did not Understand the use cases by reading the GitHub page..

It's a tool for managing environments for side-by-side installs of different versions of developer tools. Say you've got multiple projects you are working on and some need Node v18 and others Node v20 and some of each need Python 3.10 or Python 3.11 depending. You can handle switching side-by-side Node installs with a tool called nvm and there are lots for side-by-side Python switching (pyenv, pip env, conda, so many more), but maybe sometimes you want to manage both together ("this project uses Node v18 and Python 3.11"). This a tool for doing that combined development environment switching, supporting plugins for a number of ecosystems like Node and Python.

It's an alternative approach to what containers do. (Or an alternative to strict version policies such as "all Node and Python should be done with current LTS, no exceptions".)

There are similar tools on Linux, so the noteworthy thing about this one is it is Windows native.

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