Many package managers interpret semver in a similarly mechanical way, e.g. npm, bundler, cargo (and, I think, elm-package, and I'm sure others too), but they choose different versions based on that information.

And crucially, in these systems you are given an escape hatch (declaring versions that are not ok), which vgo does not support.

I think vgo allows you exclude specific versions in go.mod. It only works for specific versions, not ranges though

There are exclusions, but they are only available for the current module:

> Exclusions only apply to builds of the current module. If the current module were required by a larger build, the exclusions would not apply.

https://research.swtch.com/vgo-tour

Sure they do. What if I do want to share the same struct between packages? I need both of my dependencies to share the same version of their dependant packages.

I don't think I understand what you're getting at. In ruby I can say I depend on a version > 1.2.0 and some other project could use my package and use version 1.2.1, thus altering my dependency. Bundler lets me do that because it makes assumptions about what version numbers mean.

The lock file makes sure this only changes when I want it too, but semver is an integral part of the system