I couldn't debug the code because of my name • Hacker News Board

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#221

Post by SergeAx » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:03 AM UTC

vertis wrote: post #216

SergeAx wrote: post #201

When I first installed Windows 7 like ten years ago, I entered my Russian name in Cyrillic. When I saw that the system created a directory with exactly that name under `C:\Users\` I immediately scanned the internet for a way to rename it and done just that. I don't want to know how much mess like that in a story I thus had successfully escaped. NB: the method is still the same, it's a second (not accepted) answer her…

This is sad though. You shouldn't have to change who you are for a computer program.

I have this lower ASCII handle since about 1990, I beleive. That was the time when you just can't do literally anything without one.

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#222

Post by edaemon » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:10 AM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #220

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #170

Fun fact: If you have the exclamation mark (!) in your Windows username, Java will think it's the jar separator and `getResourceAsStream` will refuse to work. This broke many people's Minecraft installation over the years. The bug in question [0] was reported in 2001 and remains unsolved 20 years later. [0] https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4523159

I find the very idea of putting an exclamation mark on one's username and not expecting eventual problems to be quite curious.

It can be used to indicate a click sound in some languages and the IPA. Probably not the most common reason to come across this bug but it's a case worth considering.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark#Phonetics

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#223

Post by PeterisP » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

kingcharles wrote: post #161

dymk wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has that reaction ever resulted in the other party fixing their system in a timely manner?

In my experience, never. You are considered the bug, not their system.

Here's a relevant recent EU court case of a person arguing with their bank that their name should be represented properly including the accented 'é', as the GDPR asserts a right to have mistakes of personal data corrected. The bank argued that it's impossible due to a legacy system using EBCDIC encoding and would be expensive to change. The appeals court affirmed that the customer has the right to get mistakes in their personal data corrected, and it is the duty of the bank to do so even if it is expensive.

https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=Court_of_Appeal_of_Brusse...

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#224

Post by jmopp » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:15 AM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #220

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #170

Fun fact: If you have the exclamation mark (!) in your Windows username, Java will think it's the jar separator and `getResourceAsStream` will refuse to work. This broke many people's Minecraft installation over the years. The bug in question [0] was reported in 2001 and remains unsolved 20 years later. [0] https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4523159

I find the very idea of putting an exclamation mark on one's username and not expecting eventual problems to be quite curious.

The Nama language has a letter that is often replaced with an exclamation mark in common typography. The lead actor in the film The God's Must be Crazy was named N!xau ǂToma

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#225

Post by cgufus » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

ddeyar wrote: post #217

Some years ago I used the + feature in my gmail address. e.g. myname+ycombinator@gmail.com to track down which service is giving away my email address. It happened more than once that I could not log in anymore at some point because they started to disallow the + character in email addresses. I also got phone calls from some companies complaining that i misspelled my email address because there was their company name…

hehe, did the same, although not with +, but using a catch-all feature of the provider. I still get a lot of spam and phishing attempts on my „dropbox@“ address. I faintly remember they (dropbox) had a breach some time in the past.

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#226

Post by PeterisP » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 AM UTC

umvi wrote: post #9

Using non-ascii characters in file paths, toolchain config files, and other non-display contexts is just asking for trouble, even if it is your name...

Using non-ascii characters in file paths, toolchain config files and other non-display contexts is something every development team should explicitly, intentionally do in order to catch such bugs.

"Asking for trouble" is a key part of testing. My suggestion would be for a QA person to have their username (and root folder of the testable project) to start with a space, and be followed by an accented letter, tab-symbol, apostrophe, an emoji, followed by an unicode RTL control character and some Arabic text.

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#227

Post by nextaccountic » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #220

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #170

Fun fact: If you have the exclamation mark (!) in your Windows username, Java will think it's the jar separator and `getResourceAsStream` will refuse to work. This broke many people's Minecraft installation over the years. The bug in question [0] was reported in 2001 and remains unsolved 20 years later. [0] https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4523159

I find the very idea of putting an exclamation mark on one's username and not expecting eventual problems to be quite curious.

I find the idea of expecting names from other cultures to follow the customs of one's culture to be quite curious.

https://shinesolutions.com/2018/01/08/falsehoods-programmers...

(but, in any case, this discussion here on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18567548 provides some nuance)

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#228

Post by fencepost » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:28 AM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #220

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #170

Fun fact: If you have the exclamation mark (!) in your Windows username, Java will think it's the jar separator and `getResourceAsStream` will refuse to work. This broke many people's Minecraft installation over the years. The bug in question [0] was reported in 2001 and remains unsolved 20 years later. [0] https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4523159

I find the very idea of putting an exclamation mark on one's username and not expecting eventual problems to be quite curious.

Whether this seems like an issue may depend on whether it's a significant character on OSes you've used.

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#229

Post by a1369209993 » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:29 AM UTC

kevinmgranger wrote: post #98

aidenn0 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a system where the maximum length on the "new password" field in the change password form was longer than the password field in the login form. The symptom was that I could login if I used my password manager browser plugin, but not if I pasted it from my password manager.

You're lucky they weren't different lengths in the backend. I've been bitten by that surprise one too many times (which is any number higher than zero)

> one too many times (which is any number higher than zero)

Nitpick: if the number is higher than one, then it's at least two times too many.

Re: I couldn't debug the code because of my name

#230

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:34 AM UTC

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #220

tyteen4a03 wrote: post #170

Fun fact: If you have the exclamation mark (!) in your Windows username, Java will think it's the jar separator and `getResourceAsStream` will refuse to work. This broke many people's Minecraft installation over the years. The bug in question [0] was reported in 2001 and remains unsolved 20 years later. [0] https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4523159

I find the very idea of putting an exclamation mark on one's username and not expecting eventual problems to be quite curious.

With your programmer hat on, sure. But as a user and annoyed programmer, it's a disgrace that the contents of your username is treated as anything but a totally opaque string. It's like saying that of course putting semicolons into web forms will break them: not novel, still horrifying.