Steps to reproduce:
- Start a Node project that uses at least five direct dependencies.
- Leave it alone for three months.
- Come back and try to install it.
Something in the dependency tree will yell at you that it is deprecated or discontinued. That thing will not be one of your direct dependencies.
NPM will tell you that you have at least one security vulnerability. At least one of the vulnerabilities will be impossible to trigger in your particular application. At least one of the vulnerabilities will not be able to be fixed by updating the versions of your dependencies.
(I am sure I exaggerate, but not by much!)
Why is it like this? How many hours per week does this running-to-stay-in-place cost the average Node project? How many hours per week of developer time is the minimum viable Node project actually supposed to have available?
I’d rather develop with dependencies that don’t have so many vulnerabilities.
Yeah we all wanna do that, but nobody writes perfect code.
That’s why people came up with defensive programming and functional correctness.
Just seems to be difficult for the webdev industry. Seems easier to push fixes from time to time.
Then you’re in the wrong industry…
If you mean web development, you’re right.
If you mean computer science, then I’d say that webdevs have little in common with the industry that came up with stuff like ADA or functional correctness.