Comment by lmm
13 hours ago
Multiple package managers is fine, what's needed is a common repository standard (or even any repository functionality at all). Look at how it works in Java land, where if you don't want to use Maven you can use Gradle or Bazel or what have you, or if you hate yourself you can use Ant+Ivy, but all of them share the same concept of what a dependency is and can use the same repositories.
Also, having one standard packaging format and registry doesn't preclude having alternatives for special use cases.
There should be a happy path for the majority of C++ use cases so that I can make a package, publish it and consume other people's packages. Anyone who wants to leave that happy path can do so freely at their own risk.
The important thing is to get one system blessed as The C++ Package Format by the standard to avoid xkcd 927 issues.
In the Linux world and even Haiku, there is a standard package dependacy format, so dependencies aren’t really a problem. Even OSX has Homebrew. Windows is the odd man out.
Are you talking about system/application dependencies for installed applications or programming dependencies like compiled libraries and header files?
That would actually be pretty cool. Though I think there might have been papers written on this a few years ago. Does anyone know of these or have any updates about them?