seedhe wrote:I have been using Debian for years, but these days I was thinking about if I should try to use the libraries provided by debian when I am working in a new project.
For example, if I am going to work in a Rails app I only have to install ruby-rails or in case of django python3-django.
Debian comes with lots of libraries for many languages ( like libghc.* for Haskell or lib.*-perl for Perl). Is a good idea to use them ? or is always better to use tools like rvm or virtualenv.
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One of the main reasons i came back to Linux was the problems MingW was giving me in compiling script languages. And a PITA to find ports of many libs.
You will save ALOT of installation time and aggrivation by using Testing/SID :
This is perl 5, version 28, subversion 1 (v5.28.1)
Python 2.7.15+
Python 3.7.2
ruby 2.5.3p105 (2018-10-18 revision 65156)
Perl: Apt should install its packages into *system perl* and will call them first. Anything installed from CPAN will be in *site perl* which will be called if not found, in system->site order. You can also symlink older installs of site dirs into the perl INC path. May have to use the 'use 5.xxx.xxx ' directive for that , though.
Python seems to be fine. I have noted that it will happily note when installing a module whther any of its dependencies are already installed, and from what I have seen the Debian repo has an enormous amount available (I have installed 95%).
Ruby I have not tested yet, but from my experience with it, Debian is a gift from gawd considering its utterly chaotic default package versioning. Hells bells, its archive has about a million files, but only around 40-50k packages. Some packages have around 50 versions! Stick with Debian for Rails, assuming you are using the latest version, and want to avoid the multiple versioning system it has.
I have seen Ruby break on a dist-upgrade, so you may well want to stay with a rolling testing/SID, though this may be rough on anyone new to Debian. Perl and Python appear more rugged, but strongly advise NOT to upgrade their *core* packages outside of the Debian repo. Historically, at least Perl/Python were(are?) used by key boot and startup scripts. If you must run different core versions, install them to /opt and keep them out of your path.