News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit by skydhash on Friday May 08, 2026 @05:38AM (#48060796)
Ruby gems and CPAN have build scripts that rebuild stuff on the user's device (and warn you if they can't find a dependency). But I believe one of the Python's tools that started the trend of downloading binaries instead of building them. Or was it NPM?
Re:Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit by Izkata on Friday May 08, 2026 @06:57PM (#48069782)
Python's pip predates npm, installs dependencies automatically, can include binaries, and the old-style packages could run arbitrary code during the install.

Ruby gems are older than that, but I have no idea what capabilities it has/had.