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I've Just Liberated My Modules

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Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#81

Post by seanp2k2 »

Klathmon wrote: post #61
larkinrichards wrote: post #31

I applaud this action and while I'd like to point the finger at NPM, there's no real other method to fix historical package versions that depend on this. It is worth pointing to the silly state of NPM packages: Who decided that an external dependency was necessary for a module that is 17 lines of code? module.exports = leftpad; function leftpad (str, len, ch) { str = String(str); var i = -1; if (!ch && ch !== 0) ch =…

Personally i'm going to use an installable module for something even that small, because i can, and it works. The benefits from an install registry don't go away just because the module is very tiny... Why would i spend my time re-inventing the wheel for every little thing i do? And if i'm not reinventing, then i'd be copy/pasting which is much worse. At best that's a waste of time and effort to properly document the…

By this logic, every Stack Overflow snippet should be a module. I'm almost hesitant to suggest this since many people who read this will be capable of building such a thing.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#82

Post by rybosome »

vespakoen wrote: post #37
chvid wrote: post #6

In case anyone is wondering what was in the now broken dependency - here is the source code in full: module.exports = leftpad; function leftpad (str, len, ch) { str = String(str); var i = -1; if (!ch && ch !== 0) ch = ' '; len = len - str.length; while (++i https://github.com/azer/left-pad/blob/master/index.js

(bit offtopic) but what about: module.exports = function leftpad (str, len, ch) { return Array(len).join(ch || ' ') + String(str); };

Almost, but the existing code only pads when the str length is less than that of len.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#83

Post by tdicola »

I've never felt good any time I have to use node modules and see this gigantic stream of dependencies come flying down. It's even more painful when you need to assemble license information for your software and crawl through _every single dependency and all of their dependencies_ to find their licenses, etc. to check they are OK to use in your software. Just look at the View License info in the Atom text editor some time for a truly insane wall of text (over 12,000 lines!!). IMHO the entire node / NPM system is seriously flawed with so many tiny dependencies for trivial stuff.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#84

Post by profmonocle »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #39
jlg23 wrote: post #12

Seriously? "When I started coding Kik, didn’t know there is a company with same name. And I didn’t want to let a company force me to change the name of it. After I refused them, they reached NPM’s support emphasizing their lawyer power in every single e-mail CC’ing me. I was hoping that NPM would protect me, because I always believed that NPM is a nice organization." a) Ignorance is no excuse. b) Expecting others to…

There are no legal claims to be made over NPM package names. NPM has a policy for assigning names and third party attorneys don't get a say. Are you serious? >Seriously

> There are no legal claims to be made over NPM package names.

Why not? An NPM package name is the name of a piece of software, and software names are very much covered under trademark law.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#85

Post by chrisfosterelli »

cballard wrote: post #63
larkinrichards wrote: post #31

I applaud this action and while I'd like to point the finger at NPM, there's no real other method to fix historical package versions that depend on this. It is worth pointing to the silly state of NPM packages: Who decided that an external dependency was necessary for a module that is 17 lines of code? module.exports = leftpad; function leftpad (str, len, ch) { str = String(str); var i = -1; if (!ch && ch !== 0) ch =…

> Developers: less dependencies is better, especially when they're so simple! No! The opposite of that. Lots of little µframeworks, defining composable and generic types, is much better than a giant monolith. The Swift Package Manager is taking this approach, and I think it's great: https://github.com/apple/swift-package-manager#modules The caret character doesn't appear anywhere in the semver spec, so whatever that…

The caret character is a specification in NPM, not semver. It's designed to work within the semantic versioning rules to ensure you get the latest version which includes bug fixes, but also won't include breaking changes.

For example, ^1.3.2 will allow anything greater than 1.3.2 but not 2.0.0. It also has special behaviour that makes it more strict for projects with a major version of 0. If your dependencies follow semver then you'll get bug fixes and security updates without having to do anything or worry about breaking changes.

More info: https://nodesource.com/blog/semver-tilde-and-caret/

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#86

Post by aioprisan »

x0ner wrote: post #17

Not sure I follow this completely... You start a project with the same name as a company, which owns the registered brand and are surprised when some 3rd party complies with legal suggestions to make an adjustment? Seems kind of silly to expect that NPM would want to fight for your project name when you didn't seem to do your own due diligence when picking a name. Also, a bit backwards to go remove all your modules a…

Is that really silly? Coming up with a project name in an unrelated project in the technology space? That's akin to Ajax Detergent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(cleaning_product)) wanting all jQuery wiped off because there is a $.ajax() function in jQuery. Look, it even has a $! Chaching with every occurrence!

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#87

Post by steveklabnik »

gariany wrote: post #80
x0ner wrote: post #17

Not sure I follow this completely... You start a project with the same name as a company, which owns the registered brand and are surprised when some 3rd party complies with legal suggestions to make an adjustment? Seems kind of silly to expect that NPM would want to fight for your project name when you didn't seem to do your own due diligence when picking a name. Also, a bit backwards to go remove all your modules a…

a) from what I understand, his project was there first. b) NPM shouldn't have to fight it unless they are requested to, the trademark claim was ridiculous to begin with. Regardless of the claim, enforcing it would have taken years... I'm not saying NPM shouldn't have comply with the request and rename the package but definitely could/should have handled this better. c) the guy wrote: "NPM is no longer a place that I’…

  > the trademark claim was ridiculous to begin with.
npm's lawyers disagree with you, and they're lawyers.

EDIT: cool HN, -2 for stating a fact. Sure, I don't disagree that this lawsuit is kind of silly, but npm's laywers don't think this suit is _frivolous_, which is what matters.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#88

Post by pygy_ »

gojomo wrote: post #49
al2o3cr wrote: post #20

"eventually create a truly free alternative for NPM." Which will either comply with copyright laws, or get blasted off the 'netz and break everyone's build... The rules are messed up, but dramatic gestures and abstract hopes that "free software will save us" aren't going to fix them.

This is a trademark dispute, not a copyright dispute. (And since Kik the company doesn't market a product in the field of command-line programmer tools, whether they have a legitimate case is arguable.) There are other distribution architectures, both organizational and technical, which would be more resistant to IP claims, especially frivolous ones.

Trademark fields are broad AFAIK. "Digital stuff" is a single category, and both kik the messenger and azer's kik fall there.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#89

Post by swang »

maxaf wrote: post #54
joshmanders wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

Taking an idea to the logical extreme is an effective means of invalidating said idea. How many UNIX utilities are 17 silly lines long? A bit of code duplication would go a long way towards bringing sanity to JS land.

yes, let's blow up the entire concept that's worked fine for the ~5 years of node's existence because one dude did something extreme.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#90

Post by gariany »

linksbro wrote: post #65
MaulingMonkey wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're completely missing his point if you think this suggestion is at all reasonable. Is this the kik we're talking about? http://dev.kik.com/ https://trademarks.justia.com/858/93/kik-85893307.html Is the point that kik should just give up on their company trademark?

Just because they've trademarked "kik" doesn't give them complete control over all instances of that 3 letter string in the world. See the 8 factors of trademark infringement, and trademark law in general; this is just a kik lawyer being threat happy.

+1 also US Trademark != the whole world. NPM should have handle this better!
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