In the world of frontend development, there are so many technologies to choose from, with new technologies coming out every time to make the life of developers easier. In these front-end technologies, we will focus on a section referred to as package managers and especially highlight two in particular. Package managers in web development help install and manage dependencies in front-end development. Dependencies in this case are third-party software created by someone else that solves a specific problem within your project, allowing you to focus on other tasks within the project. The focus of this article is the two managers: Yarn and npm.
npm
This is the largest storage of software, containing more than 800,000 code packages. Also referred to as Node Package Manager, it is the default manager for the JavaScript runtime.
Yarn
This is a much newer alternative to npm, brought out in 2016 by Sebastian McKenzie, who at the time worked at Facebook. Since it made its debut to the world, it was said to be a quicker and more dependable alternative to npm.
Differences
Community and Ecosystem
npm, in this case, has been around for a very long time and has a larger user base, making it easier to find resources and solutions to issues should they occur. Yarn is still relatively new but does benefit from the backing of the Facebook developer community.
Speed
Yarn became popular initially due to its faster and more consistent installs. This was achieved through the use of parallel installations and offline installs, provided you have the packages locally. npm, on the other hand, with the latest versions, is quite fast though it doesn’t allow offline installs or parallel installations.
Workspaces and Monorepo Support
Yarn offers built-in support for workspaces and monorepos, making it an ideal choice for managing complex projects with multiple packages. Workspaces allow you to define multiple packages within a single code repository and manage their dependencies collectively. This feature streamlines the development process, enables better code sharing, and improves overall project organization. While npm also supports workspaces, Yarn's implementation is often considered more robust and feature-rich.
The choice of package manager depends on the developer and the project they might be working on. Both package managers are good, and whichever one you decide to use will be determined by what the developer is trying to achieve.
** In HNG**
I expect to be given challenges that test the skills of developers and make them better. I look forward to dealing with real-world projects. I am quite aware of the fact that ReactJS is primarily used in HNG. I believe React is one of the best front-end technologies out right now. It has a massive community and is backed by Meta. It makes front-end development easier by breaking down designs into components and making web states easier to manage. I heard about the HNG internship from friends who have participated before and the opportunities it created for them, especially in the HNG Premium tier. I hope it can do the same for me.
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