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Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

twitter.github.com

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Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#21

Post by Zr40 »

substack wrote: post #15
jhspaybar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, RequireJS is pretty solid for client side package management. With solid config files you can build out large client side applications that grab dependencies asynchronously, and it DOES work with everything.

and it DOES work with everything ... so long as you wrap all the files in the particular variant of define() function that works with requirejs (but not with other competing AMD function signatures). And then you might want to use some modules written for commonjs or node with `exports`, so you'll need a tool to transform those files. And then you'll probably want to compile the application into a single javascript b…

Nope, RequireJS can load any kind of Javascript dependency, even if it doesn't use the AMD format. You can even specify dependencies for non-AMD scripts in the configuration object.[0]

As for define(), there's only one AMD method signature: define([[name,] deps,] fn). Any loader that does not accept this signature cannot legitimately call itself an AMD loader.

[0] http://requirejs.org/docs/api.html#config-shim

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#22

Post by kahlil »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #17

What's different about this than the official component project? https://github.com/component/component https://github.com/component/spec/wiki Bower seems like a blatant ripoff. Twitter Engineering doesn't even mention the component project or spec on the Bower page at all...

The difference is that the component project depends on Github. Bower is much more low-level and unopinionated. All you need is a Git path.

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#23

Post by Zr40 »

jhspaybar wrote: post #14
streptomycin wrote: post #3

Does anyone think this can finally be the tool to bring sane package management to client side JavaScript development? I'm hesitant to use any of the existing tools because none of them support all the libraries I use, so I'd end up doing stuff manually anyway, and I don't have any confidence that any of them will keep working in the long term.

Well, RequireJS is pretty solid for client side package management. With solid config files you can build out large client side applications that grab dependencies asynchronously, and it DOES work with everything.

RequireJS manages load dependencies, not packages. It does not install and update them.

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#26

Post by golden_apples »

oatmealsnap wrote: post #19

Trying to get back onto the developer world's good side?

As part of the 99% of developers who work for other people, I resent troll-bait comments like this.

Twitter, in addition to being a genuinely interesting social phenomenon, has always posed technical challenges that were sufficiently interesting to attract some top-notch people. Give them the respect of judging them by their technical work, and not their employer's latest unpopular business decision.

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#27

Post by jacobr »

kahlil wrote: post #22
dreamdu5t wrote: post #17

What's different about this than the official component project? https://github.com/component/component https://github.com/component/spec/wiki Bower seems like a blatant ripoff. Twitter Engineering doesn't even mention the component project or spec on the Bower page at all...

The difference is that the component project depends on Github. Bower is much more low-level and unopinionated. All you need is a Git path.

Surely that could have been a pull request to Component instead?

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#28

Post by alexchamberlain »

aeosynth wrote: post #2

$ bower lookup jquery jquery git://github.com/components/jquery.git Web link: https://github.com/component/jquery Since there's no authentication, the bower jquery package will always point to this url, which is not officially associated with jquery.

This will lead to the same signing processes of other package managers, such as `pacman`.

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#29

Post by hboon »

hinathan wrote: post #8
Garbage wrote: post #5

The site itself doesn't give much of the introduction or what Bower is all about. Github page is much better - https://github.com/twitter/bower

I thought so too but then scrolled down more — the design of the page made me think it was just a splash but there's tons of details underneath the big header. :/

I didn't realise you can scroll down. Whatever happened to simple UI affordance.

Re: Bower: A package manager for the web, from Twitter

#30

Post by jacobr »

substack wrote: post #13
streptomycin wrote: post #3

Does anyone think this can finally be the tool to bring sane package management to client side JavaScript development? I'm hesitant to use any of the existing tools because none of them support all the libraries I use, so I'd end up doing stuff manually anyway, and I don't have any confidence that any of them will keep working in the long term.

No. If anything, it will probably just get even more fragmented before the situation gets better. As we understand the features and architectures of package management systems better it becomes even easier to write package managers. This is a good thing long-term because we can more thoroughly explore the solution space before settling on a few "winners". However, at the same time package repositories are fundamental…

I really like browserify, but what do you see as the drawbacks and challenges to get more adoption, especially among non-Node.js developers?
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