this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

I always reel in horror when projects have tiny, 'negligible to implement yourself' functions like these as dependencies. See also: is-even 🙄

Edit: is-even has a dependency on is-odd which has a dependency on is-number. 🤦‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Yes you can, just don't odd

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

JavaScript is a dangerous shitshow for this exact reason. Dependencies are a security and stability nightmare.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Eh, I'd say any language that offers a package repository is just as susceptible. I'm neither pro- nor anti- dependency, but I do always try to keep them to an absolute minimum regardless of what environment I'm working in. Sometimes it makes sense to not reinvent the wheel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

This is why I only code in Assembly. /jk

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Yes, but other languages have exponentially fewer packages that install when you add something, making the attack vector smaller and easier to monitor.

The best way to fix this is for library authors to avoid installing as many sub-dependencies as possible (is-odd, being an obvious example). But that’s a fundamental culture problem.

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[–] [email protected] 154 points 9 months ago (3 children)

TL;DR: A patent and trademark agent and NPM bullied an Open Source Dev, so the Dev deleted his code from NPM as is his right. The internet broke. NPM restored the code against the dev's wishes. Corpos win...as always.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I’d say the bigger issue was people live-linking to the files rather than downloading and using a version controlled copy they can control.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

I love how it broke React.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

11 lines of code shouldn't be a package.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (11 children)

you should see the "is_odd" package...

it's like, return (num%2)? true:false

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

at which point do you blame the language for not implementing it natively?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I mean, does any language implement is_odd() natively? Doesn't everyone implement modulus and pretty much assumes that you remember modulus from elementary and can infer that even numbers are those where x % 2 == 0.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

at 200k weekly downloads, i blame npm for allowing it...
https://www.npmjs.com/package/is-even

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Isn’t %2 already native?

(BTW this thing failed JavaScript so hard ECMA immediately included it in that year’s standard)

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

I remember it live as it was happening. It was fun.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 9 months ago

Original article not via pocket: https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code

It's the left-pad npm incident, it was a big news back than, it has its own section on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm#Dependency_chain_issues

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