Software Engineering Daily Homebrew and macOS Package Management with Mike McQuaid
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Oct 21, 2025 Mike McQuaid, an open-source maintainer and a key figure in the growth of Homebrew, joins Kevin Ball to unveil the inner workings of this essential macOS package manager. They explore Homebrew's clever design, emphasizing its user-space model for safety and its automated processes that enhance developer experience. McQuaid also addresses the importance of sustainability in open source, unveiling the strategies for funding and maintaining community health. Plus, they delve into the advantages of prebuilt binaries and the balance of contributor time in the project's ecosystem.
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How Mike Joined Homebrew
- Mike McQuaid joined Homebrew after meeting Max Howell and hearing about a package-manager idea born in a pub.
- He started contributing about four to five months after its creation and has worked on it for 16 years.
Readable DSLs Enabled Rapid Contributions
- Homebrew used Ruby to create readable DSL-style formula files that made packaging easy to contribute to.
- That low-syntax design greatly lowered the barrier for contributors to define how packages build.
Designing For Community Contribution
- Homebrew intentionally embraced a GitHub-based workflow to scale contributions instead of centralizing maintainer work.
- That design made thousands of packages sustainable with a community-maintenance model.
