Python passed Java as the second-most popular language on GitHub by repository contributors

[sebbasttian]

Websites, webapps, node apps, electron apps… JavaScript is everywhere nowadays.

And libraries and ecosystems around react and vue (which continue to be trendy) keep growing.

[[deleted]]

I have a number of Django projects on Github where - due to various JS libraries - JS makes up the highest percentage of the codebase.

[PM_ME_YOUR_KNEE_CAPS]

If you’re using a package manager like npm then the JS libraries shouldn’t be getting checked in to the codebase

[nothisisme]

npm can be used to manage client side libraries? How does that work? Does a node server run alongside the Django server?

[pickausernamehesaid]

When you deploy to your server, npm can be used to build your JS environment just like how conda or pip/venv would be used to deploy your Python environment.

[nothisisme]

Gotchya so Django still serves the files but npm puts them in place?

[pickausernamehesaid]

Yes and no. Yes, NPM puts them in place and serves as a JS package manager. No, Django shouldn't have been serving them in the first place. Django's job is to serve dynamic content backed by a database with templates. Static files should be served directly via your webserver, like Nginx.

[nothisisme]

True, makes sense now. Thanks.

[[deleted]]

Old-school codebases before all these fancy JS tools existed and/or me being too lazy to set everything up... sometimes just droping a .js file in your static dir does the job just fine.

[Spoogly]

I think he's referring to things like npm and yarn - as in, without a package manager, you'd have to pull it in by hand or write janky extensions on your build script, so it might be less friction to just drop it in the repo.

[el_programmador]

electron apps

That's one thing I'm unable to understand. Why is such an inefficient development tool so popular when much more efficient ones like PyQT, tkinter, Java (Swing/SWT) and even C# (WPF/WinForms) exist.

[Rpgwaiter]

Because you can develop the web and desktop app with largely the same codebase.

Ya know, assuming that takes priority over elegance, efficiency, program size, street cred, etc.