Comment by dboon

The problem is that Arch doesn't need to quickly resolve (version -> manifest) for arbitrary versions. With Arch, /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db has one release of a set of packages. When you install, you just grab whatever's there. Rolling release. pacman -Syu pulls the newest version of that set of packages. If you install sqlite 3.0 and then come back a few years later and "reinstall" all the Arch packages you used to have on a new machine, you'll either (a) use that exact database and pull the same version or (b) pacman -Syu, pull latest package database, and get the newest sqlite (say, 3.5)

There's no concept of installing sqlite 3.0 on a system where sqlite 3.5 is available.

For a language package manager, it's exactly the opposite. I could make a project with every version of sqlite the package manager has ever known about. They all must be resolvable.

If you want to do that resolution quickly (which manifest do I use for sqlite 3.0?), repo-per-package doesn't work without a bunch of machinery that makes it, IMO, not worth it.

Pacman is the best, you'd have to pry Arch from my cold, dead hands. Just different constraints.