PolicyTowardsDependencies - softwareunderground/xsdf GitHub Wiki
Dependency policy
There is an eternal clash between programmers and software engineers: programmers want to use any tool they find useful. Software engineers are scared of external packages; they want to use as few external dependencies as possible.
We think the software engineer's vision is especially useful when it comes to general-purpose tools, where it is of essence that a legitimate claim can be made about 'runs always, anywhere'. Therefore, minimizing dependencies is a prime constraint.