FreezeForLibraries

Posted https://twitter.com/interstar/status/1597998442873180160

We need a "freeze" for library dependencies.

When working, we build up huge trees of brittle dependencies on libraries.

A good solution would be to take a local cache of just the bits of all the libraries we actually use, that work for us.

This is what something like the Google Closure Compiler does at compile-time.

But why shouldn't our PackageManagementTools provide us with this? A way to flash-freeze a bundle of just the functions / objects that we actually use and depend on? In an immutable blob that lives in our projects. Cutting all the live dependency connections.

Of course we don't get the benefit of live updates / bug-fixes etc. But in many cases we use only a couple of features of many libraries that already work. And we don't need to update them.

So the benefit / cost ratio would work out.

Of course, if you see there IS a better version of the library, or need something from it, you can always go back and rebuild from it.