npm weekly #24: semver explained, amazing videos, pizza

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who moved my cheese put a caret (^) in my package.json?

When you execute npm install in a clean project directory, package.json specifies the version of each dependency that gets installed. But npm makes it possible to specify a range of accepted versions instead of exact version numbers.

If this sounds a) awesome and b) worth understanding in detail, we highly recommend this neat ByteArcher explainer on Semver.

awesome videos for learning all the things

The Cyberwizard Institute is an open, collaborative, and free programming school based out of Oakland’s Sudo Room hackerspace. They’ve got a nice workshop on using npm, and many many more helpful videos on their YouTube channel.

two ways to help npm!

How do you improve upon perfection? One way to find out. Actually, two!:

schedule a usability session

As part of our ongoing focus on making developers’ lives easier, we need your help participating in a 30-minute usability session with Nick Cawthon, our new head of design & UX. Laugh, cry, screenshare — and help us improve our product.

help us test Orgs

Coming this fall, Orgs will streamline the process for delegating permissions, managing roles, and collaborating with your team on publishing and sharing packages. But first, we need a small number of teams to help with testing and feedback. If you and your team would like early access to our newest feature, sign up here to help out.

new humans

Oh geez, we’re still growing.

• Aria Stewart joins our www team remotely from Boston via PayPal, where she worked extensively on Kraken.
• Nick Cawthon joined this week to run design & UX. He laid out his plans on our blog.
• Back in the day, Jon Cowperthwait worked with CTO Laurie at awe.sm; now he’s here to help Kasey market all the things.

looking for work?

If you’re not doing Node.js in your job, and you’d like to be, get a load of these companies looking for JavaScript and Node.js developers. (Have companies to add to this list? email whoshiring@npmjs.com!)

big numbers are big, cont’d

Holy wah, a new record: in the last 30 days, npm users have downloaded over 2 billion packages. Also: in the 20 months since npm, Inc. started, the registry got 300% bigger, and registry traffic has grown 1100%.

have an idea for the Weekly?

We love hearing from you. Just drop us a note with your suggestions for the Weekly and heads-ups of what’s up.

hungry?

Of the 173,288 (and counting!) packages on the npm registry, this is possibly the most edible. Here’s a fun package for ordering pizza from Domino’s: npm: dominos.