

Ask HN: Why don't CPAN equivalents exist for every language/framework? - edb

Hi,<p>I came across this blog post today : http://joose-js.blogspot.com/2009/02/cpan-for-javascript.html<p>He says, "While there have been attempts to create a CPAN (comprehensive module directory) for JavaScript it has failed <i>just as this has failed for pretty much every language but Perl</i>."<p>Is this too broad a statement? Has this really failed in every language but Perl? I know because I tried to build a "Comprehensive Module Directory" for cakePHP and pretty much failed for various reasons (lack of community support, inconsistencies in standards, etc etc)<p>Any thoughts on this? Any published theories on why this is hard? How do you go about starting a directory for your favourite language or framework? Does the answer lie in the fact that frameworks might be the new "module directory"? Am I being stupid? :)
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silentbicycle
For one thing, there's conflict between using an OS-level packaging system
(such as Debian or Ubuntu's package repositories, BSD ports, etc.) and a
language-level packaging system, and mixing the two often doesn't work so
well.

Also, as a language, Perl occupied a somewhat unique niche for a while. It
_certainly_ had a head start on other scripting languages, and I think most
other languages at the time had issues with portability or multiple
implementations that could prevent such a project from achieving escape
velocity.

While we're just listing things, Lua has LuaRocks (<http://luarocks.org>),
Chicken Scheme has Eggs Unlimited (<http://chicken.wiki.br/chicken-
projects/egg-index-4.html>), Haskell has hackage
(<http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/pkg-list.html>), etc.

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duskwuff
Python has PyPI. Ruby has the Gems repository. PHP has PEAR. There's no CPAN
equivalent for Javascript, but that's largely because one doesn't generally
install Javascript libraries in the same sort of way that one installs Perl
modules.

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rml
From Jarkko Hietaniemi, the CPAN Master Librarian:

<http://www.cpan.org/misc/ZCAN.html>

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jpcx01
Saying Rubygems as a CPAN like system has failed is retarded. It's vastly
easier to work with than CPAN, and has gems for everything imaginable. The
barrier to package up a new gem is almost nil (nearly automatic if you have a
github repo).

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sri
maybe because we now live in the google era -- easier/faster to just google it

