What if we think of libraries and dependencies in a different way?
For instance: dependencies would be at the granularity of a single function or data type. And when you take a dependency, in your editing environment it would look just like your code and fit right in, maybe even with your preferred autoformatted style. The editor would realize that the function has an external author, and could git-pull new changes in, or you could fork the function (and maybe some merges would conflict).
The advantage is that the code would feel a lot tighter and less mysterious, though still allow collaborative development.
Rust isn't way off here. It already does a lot of tracking of individual functions during the compilation process, and docs.rs already provides quick access to a lot of source code for dependencies. Closing the last few gaps to make it feel like part of your program, rather than outside magic, could be awesome.
For instance: dependencies would be at the granularity of a single function or data type. And when you take a dependency, in your editing environment it would look just like your code and fit right in, maybe even with your preferred autoformatted style. The editor would realize that the function has an external author, and could git-pull new changes in, or you could fork the function (and maybe some merges would conflict).
The advantage is that the code would feel a lot tighter and less mysterious, though still allow collaborative development.
Rust isn't way off here. It already does a lot of tracking of individual functions during the compilation process, and docs.rs already provides quick access to a lot of source code for dependencies. Closing the last few gaps to make it feel like part of your program, rather than outside magic, could be awesome.