zlacker

>>speckx+(OP)
As someone that was already working during the dotcom wave, Perl is a tool I would still reach for, given the problem I might trying to sort out, if on an UNIX like platform.

> Binary package managers that chase down dependencies on their own weren’t a thing until the early 2000s, I think?

UNIX package managers started to be made available during the 1990's.

>>pjmlp+dH
Yes, but they were either source package managers or they didn't resolve dependencies transitively, only complained about missing direct dependencies.

>>kqr+6P
I definitely had Debian installs pulling binary package dependencies automagically via apt-get in 1999, and I think similar with RedHat a year or so before that.

Though that doesn't cover much of the 90s.

>>dspill+Tp1
Debian had binary packages with dependencies via dpkg from maybe 1994. Automatic recursive downloads, with apt (apt-get) were much later, around 1998. Rpm was launched in 1997.

It's hard to remember really, but automatic downloads would have been considered quite a misfeature by lots of user sites, in an era of intermittent, metered internet connections.