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A comment on Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by mumblemumble on Sunday December 12, 2021 @09:38AM (#29529965)
With Python, if I publish my script with 100 dependencies, and someone `pip install`s it, they will also end up with 100 packages being copied to their computer.

The main difference is that Python installs them globally (or at least thinks it does, if you're using virtual environments), while .NET apps isolate themselves from each other.

Also, let's make a fair comparison. Is that hypothetical Rust application of yours depending on literally 100 crates? If so, what is the size of your binary?

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Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by drunkpotato on Sunday December 12, 2021 @10:07AM (#29530177)
Please don't use Python package management as a baseline. Aim higher.

I love Python, but I cringe whenever someone asks me why a Python program isn't running properly on their machine. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1987/

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Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by AdrianB1 on Sunday December 12, 2021 @05:30PM (#29534359)
Take PHP with composer: it works quite fine, but still you need all the dependencies downloaded from somewhere on Internet. Just a PHP script and the PHP interpreter works, but this is not how 99.9% of the software is written.
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Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by kilburn on Sunday December 12, 2021 @06:04PM (#29534624)
The php world invented the phar format [1] to deal with the single file tool/app distribution issue.

In fact, composer uses dependencies managed by itself in their sources. Then it gets packaged and distributed as a single file that includes all dependencies (composer.phar). That single file can be run by php as if it was any regular php file (including executing it directly and letting your system detect the required interpreter through the shebang).

https://www.php.net/manual/en/intro.phar.php

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Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by AdrianB1 on Monday December 13, 2021 @12:48PM (#29542103)
Self quote: this is not how most apps are written.
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Re:Ask HN: Why is building Windows apps so complicated? by sdwr on Sunday December 12, 2021 @11:30AM (#29530954)
Funny how feelings change. https://xkcd.com/353/
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