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0 pointsmoffkalast3y ago0 comments

> Atom extensions could have dependencies on each other

This. This always has been and always will be a critical ecosystem mistake.

The principle of one msi/exe installing everything you need on Windows, one click downloading an entire app from a store on Android or iOS is seamless and almost always error free. Or in your example with VSCode having self contained encapsulated plugins that install with one click.

Meanwhile I'm having issues installing things and resolving dependencies with pip in python, apt in linux, npm, etc. basically all the time. It's a shit system that only pretends to be elegant and it's time we fucking admit it to ourselves. Designed by elitist morons for elitist morons and everyone else is paying the price.

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brundolf3y ago

That seems extreme.

Any ecosystem has to strike a balance between which things should be opinionated/officially-sanctioned/standardized, and which things should be left open in "userspace". I think Atom made the wrong choice by outsourcing some very standard features to the community, like hover-overs and underlines. VSCode seems to have hit a sweet-spot, offering standard solutions for common functionality but leaving plenty of doors still open for people to build on.

moffkalastOP3y ago

Well perhaps. The main distinction that needs to be made is whether something is supposed to be a library or a final product. It seems to be more and more usual these days to blur the line between the two and it's making life worse for everyone involved. Libraries should not be shipped separately, no exceptions.

Even cases like installing the .NET framework or the JVM or some C++ redistributable are parts of that idea that leaked into the otherwise flat packed environment of Windows for example, and all I've ever seen it is cause issues due to version mismatches or them missing. Just completely self destructive behaviour in order to save a few megabytes... and not even that when in practice you end up with 14 installations of the same thing with different versions for every app ffs.

Android is arguably handling this way better, as such stupidity simply isn't even allowed there (to my knowledge), as are web browsers. Imagine having to install a chrome extension to use a site properly, people would think you're insane!

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