npm install everything, and the complete and utter chaos that follows
boehs.org
how one little joke can get so, so out of hand

Not entirely the usual fare, but i figured some here would appreciate it

I often rag on the js/node/npm ecosystem for being utter garbage, and this post is a quite a full demonstration of many of the shortcomings and outright total design failures present in that space

  • gerikson@awful.systemsEnglish
    12·
    9 months ago

    The commenters on HN and lobste.rs are generally on the side of the package creators, with the view that NPM is run by GitHub, who is owned by Microsoft. All this is true, but it doesn’t follow from that that the NPM people are paid fuck-you money. I suspect they’re understaffed, and overworked, and that this stunt didn’t make them very happy.

    Although in retrospect, not anticipating that some rando would try to depend on everything in the repository seems like a naive view on human nature.

    • V0ldek@awful.systemsEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago
      1. If they are understaffed - Microsoft is trying to sell itself as OSS friendly, so they have absolutely zero excuse for not putting enough resources into something this load-bearing and this historically shitty.
      2. If they are well-funded, what the fuck is that money being spent on, ChatNPM?
      3. Npm was acquired by GitHub in 2020. It has been an utter dumpster fire for its entire history. Being acquired by Microsoft doesn’t absolve you from having created the tool Satan the Lord of Hell will use to break the Seventh Seal and bring upon a thousand years of darkness upon humanity.
    • froztbyte@awful.systemsOPEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      there’s probably a few people trying this in every other language ritenao

      guess we’ll find out in a few weeks!

          • froztbyte@awful.systemsOPEnglish
            5·
            9 months ago

            I know pypi is a bit more responsive to issues (having seen it happen, and seen on irc how the people think about things). on the rest I haven’t really been close to things for a little while because reasons

            android/dart seems to give me “google or someone will intervene” vibes. not sure about the wider maven ecosystem. the mental image of trying to deal with this particular problem in their usual suggested flows (which is extremely “click here and here in these 5 menus. we’ll only mention the places by name, fuck you getting circles or screenshots.”) strikes me as though it may cause a hundred million wails crying out at once