App Development Vocabulary — Day 17: Dependency
A library becomes a dependency the moment your project relies on it.
Dependencies chain. Your app depends on a charting library. The charting library depends on a math library. Your app now depends on both, even though you never chose the second one. That chain is called the dependency tree, and on a real project it's big.
Two things follow from that.
Your project's dependency list is part of the project. Anyone who clones it runs one install command and gets the same set.
And you don't own that code. When a dependency ships a bug or a security fix, you need to update. Keeping dependencies current is a real, ongoing job.
Quick check: You install a library and it pulls in six others you didn't ask for. Are those six dependencies of your project?
## SPOKEN LINES
- You delete one tiny date library. Every timestamp in the app breaks at once, and the build fails on your laptop. The app was leaning on it, and on a few hundred more like it.
- - DEPENDENCY
- - A dependency is outside code your project needs in order to run. Each library you add brings its own dependencies, and those bring their own.
- - Your date library is one, the tiny helper it needs is another, and the 300 you never picked came along for the ride.
- - So a dependency is code from outside that your app relies on to run. Tomorrow: Package, how that code gets boxed up and installed.
## NEXT
Day 18: Package
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App Development Vocabulary — Day 17: Dependency
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