Sunday, December 10, 2017

Few things about NPM and Package Managers

What is a command line and a package manager?

First of all, what is a command line or command prompt in Windows?

A command-line interface or command language interpreter (CLI) is used to execute commands within the terminal window, typed in by the user. Most of those commands are used to automate tasks via scripts and batch files.

You can then use various commands such as

  1. cd or chdir to display the current directory or change the current folder
  2. cls to clear the screen
  3. dir to display a list of folder's files and sub folders.

How do I launch launch The Command Prompt From The Run Window?

One of the quickest ways to launch the Command Prompt is to use the Run window (press Win+R on your keyboard to open it). Then, type cmd or cmd.exe and press Enter or click. The Terminal window pops up and shows the C:\Users\DeafDave which is the starting point.











What about PowerShell?

A shell is a user interface that gives you access to various services of an operating system. A shell can be command-line based or it can include a graphical user interface (GUI). Windows PowerShell is a  powerful shell developed by Microsoft. This PowerShell is much more powerful than the command prompt and is used for task automation and configuration management. This shell is based on the .NET framework.

There is also the Windows PowerShell ISE, a graphical user interface . ISE stands for Integrated Scripting Environment which allows you to easily create different scripts without having to type all the commands in the command line.











The fast way of launching PowerShell is to use the Run dialog. Press Windows + R keys on your keyboard to open the Run window, enter " powershell" inside and then press OK.


Reference


What is a package?

A software package manager installs the packages you want to use and provides a useful interface to work with them from your PC.  npm is one of the most popular software managers and makes it easy for you to share and update files with your co workers. To use npm, you need to have Node.JS a Chrome's JavaScript runtime module.

Bower is a Node module so to get it. You need to install npm and Git applications on your computer. Bower packages are Git repos. Bower uses Git to understand where the package is, what version it's on—that sort of thing.

node.js
Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast and scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
https://nodejs.org/en/

npm
node package manager for node.js. npm is a NodeJS package manager. As its name would imply, you can use it to install node programs. Also, if you use it in development, it makes it easier to specify and link dependencies.

Bower
Bower is just a package manager. The important thing to note here is that Bower is just a package manager, and nothing else. Its singular purpose is to manage packages. You can find it at https://bower.io/

Bower is a command line utility. Install it with npm.
$ npm install -g bower
Bower requires node, npm and git.

Prior to Polymer Version 3, to build Google Polymer's web components, you would use Bower. Bower is a convenient way to quickly build web components by collecting Google Polymer's elements together to build a Polymer ready web component.

More on them later.

Over and out!
Deaf Dave.

References
https://css-tricks.com/whats-great-bower/
https://www.npmjs.com/
https://www.sitepoint.com/beginners-guide-node-package-manager/
https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/what-is-npm


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