Why do so many programming languages have their own package manager? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 hours ago by DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64685863

Lots of programming languages have their own package manager, separate from the distribution or OS package manager.

Going loosely from the TIOBE index:

Python has Pip

C# has NuGet

Javascript has npm for Node.js

Visual Basic also uses NuGet

R has a repository of packages that can be installed by running install.packages("something") in R

Rust has Cargo/Crates

Go has the go get command

Swift has its own package manager swift package

Ruby has RubyGems

Java has Maven and Gradle (not sure if they are full package managers, or build automation tools with dependency resolution)

PHP has Composer for managing libraries and dependencies

C and C++ are the only exceptions I can think of, off the top of my head; libraries are managed by, and coupled to, the operating system

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[-] Feyd@programming.dev 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

CPAN for perl was the first one and it was very successful so got copied.

separate from the distribution or OS package manager.

Because it is way easier to manage them this way rather than have every distro package repo also support them. Additionally, windows and Mac are also targets and they don't have built in package managers.

C and C++ are the only exceptions

It is not as popular but https://conan.io/ exists. Personally, I miss working in c++ because the lack of a built in package manager made people manage dependencies more thoughtfully. It was not without tradeoffs but I preferred that world to adding a dependency being one command away.

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026

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