Libraries in computer programming are like recipe books for chefs. A recipe book has instructions on how to make different dishes. If you’re a chef, rather than figuring out how to make bread or a cake from scratch every time, you’d use a recipe that’s already been tested and proven to work. That way, you save time and know you’ll get a good result.
Outdated Recipe Books: Challenges in Programming
But what if your favourite recipe book is really old? Some recipes might not work as well because ingredients have changed, or there’s a better way to do things now. If no one updates the book, you might follow a recipe and end up with a bad cake, or even worse, get sick because the recipe had something wrong with it.
The role of Libraries in programming
In the computer world, developers use “libraries” – these are like their recipe books. They contain “recipes” or instructions for common tasks like creating an online payment or sending messages. BSV as a technology that deals with money needs reliable and secure recipes since it handles monetary transfers.
Challenges in BSV development
However, the BSV developers are facing a problem: their recipe books (libraries) are outdated. They have to write new recipes themselves, which can be very tricky. This leads to a lot of repeated work and wasted effort, making things frustrating and inefficient for businesses and confusing for new developers who want to join in. Some people have modified these original recipes but no one is keeping track of the new and improved recipes of old favourite dishes. This is where NPM comes in.
NPM: A Solution for BSV Development
NPM (which stands for Node Package Manager) is like an enormous online kitchen where developers can share and find all sorts of recipe books (blockchain libraries) they need. But for BSV, there’s a lot of scattered and outdated recipes, and there’s no main book that has everything they need.
By updating all the BSV recipes and putting them into one big, well-organised book under the “bsv” label in this online kitchen, chefs (developers) won’t have to scramble around looking for the right recipes or worry about using a bad one. They will have a current, safe, and trusted set of instructions to work from. This makes it easier for chefs to make great dishes (or build great applications) and for new chefs to learn how to cook (or new developers to start coding for BSV).
Benefits of updated Libraries
Having one up-to-date and comprehensive recipe book makes it easier to share knowledge, teach others, and ensure everyone is making the best food (or software) they can. This can make cooking (or coding) more appealing to everyone, and it’s likely more chefs (developers) will come to the kitchen (BSV ecosystem) to cook up something great.
FAQ: BSV blockchain libraries
What is npm, namespace and how will unifying the BSV libraries into a single SDK help developers? Learn more in our ‘FAQ: BSV blockchain libraries’ article.
