kengz

npm vs RubyGem vs PyPI

04 Feb 2016

If you’re a Node developer, then you know how spoilt we are (all hail the almightly babysitter npm).

Let’s not talk about languages, because I firmly believe that languages are designed to suit certain needs, so I don’t take the “which language is better” argument.

Instead, I’d love to talk about packaging - because it’s so central to modern development. A good packaging manager is crucial to foster a good open source standard in a community.

This week I try to find out if we can do stuff the npm-way with the package managers of Python and Ruby, i.e. how do you publish a proper package there.

npm

Here’s a sample npm file structure that I wrote. Of course it’s more well polished than the two below cuz I’m mainly a Node dev.

If you head over to the site, it’s pretty damn active; in fact it’s the world’s largest package manager. People npm install a lot.

It has:

Let’s quickly go over how we work with npm.

  1. Create a Github repo with README.md, LICENSE, .gitignore, and clone it.
  2. Write your module under lib/, and import the needed methods to one point of entry index.js.
  3. At root, run npm init to setup the package.json, which will take care of everything nicely using simple JSON format.
  4. Run npm publish and voila. Your new package is up and available immediately. Just do npm i <package> to install.

At the time of writing, npm has about 800Mil downloads per week. That’s more than all the RubyGem downloads (700Mil) ever. This is the magic when doing a thing is so effortless (in npm), everyone does it without a second thought. I remember when I started as a newbie with npm I went through everything smoothly, thanks to the great README.md most packages have.

RubyGem

Here’s a sample RubyGem file structure that I wrote. For guide, look at DigitalOcean’s.

RubyGem is the npm of Ruby, and the packages are called Gems. It the grand-daddy of modern dev, but there’s a few things that made me cringe. Grand-daddy is old now.

It has:

Let’s quickly go over how we work with RubyGem.

  1. Create a Github repo with README.md, LICENSE, .gitignore, and clone it.
  2. Ahhh do gem install bundler first. At root, run npm init to setup the package.json, which will take care of everything nicely using simple JSON format. run bundle gem <gem> to generate the necessary files. That’s pretty nice. But there’s a nightmarish part: the Gem specs are split across different files: write it in functional Ruby <gem>.gemspec without a single standardized format, source the gem dependencies from Gemfile, and add a Rakefile for publishing your gem. No, there is no standardized package.json to handle all these things for you under a single JSON file. Welcome to the brutal world you spoilt brat.
  3. Write your module under lib/<gem>, and import the needed methods to one point of entry index.js. add a version.rb under it, then import the needed methods to one point of entry lib/<gem>.rb.
  4. Run ~npm publish and voila~ gem push <gem>-<version>.gem. Oh if you think that’s 3 arguments too long, wait till you see how to use Rake. Whyyy gosh whyyy? But you can do gem install <gem> simply, thank god.

PyPI

Here’s a sample PyPI file structure that I wrote, along with a simple guide.

I love Python, but PyPI gives me cancer. Okay I get it, the user base is different from the sassy Node devs, and who gives a shit about user interface? Ain’t nobody got time for that (except for web developers).

It has:

Let’s quickly go over how we work with PyPI. But first, good luck with the fragmentation - Python2 v.s. Python3, virtualenv v.s. pyvenv…

Now that you’re done choosing,

  1. Create a Github repo with README.md, LICENSE, .gitignore, and clone it.
  2. Write your module under <package>/. Add <package>/__init__.py, and import the needed methods within it.
  3. At root, run npm init to setup the package.json, which will take care of everything nicely using simple JSON format.Copy the setup.py from someone else who has written it, and there’s no standardization. Ohh wanna list your dependencies? Do pip install <deps> as you dev, then at the end only specify these dependencies using pip3 freeze > requirements.txt
  4. Run npm publish and voila. Nightmare isn’t over. First, register your package name python setup.py register. If successful, then upload your smelly tar balls to PyPI python setup.py sdist upload (who the hell devs with tar files and manual installation today?). Your new package is up and available immediately a century later before you can do pip install <package> to install the just-published version.
  5. Btw all the cray involving pip and packages are best done with virtualenv or whatever you choose.

Conclusion

I love all the three languages - Node, Ruby, Python. However, modern dev is so much about open source and external dependencies - you can’t write powerful code efficiently without relying on open source modules. No dev is an island now.

That being said, I love npm, but RubyGem and PyPI kinda made me went “ehmmmm, what year is this?” I’ll still have to use both of them (and cringe every time I do), but I just have to suck it up and stop being a spoilt brat. The world isn’t all nice, you know.

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