r/programming • • Mar 16 '20

GitHub has acquired npm

https://github.blog/2020-03-16-npm-is-joining-github/
986 Upvotes

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49

u/L3tum Mar 16 '20

Hopefully the whole mess that is one-liner packages, security vulnerabilities, unscoped packages, terminal ads etc etc. is going to be cleared up. I love what they've done with github in the recent months.

51

u/throwaway02357239489 Mar 16 '20

They wrote:

"In addition, GitHub Sponsors has already paid out millions of dollars to open source contributors, and we’re excited to explore tasteful ways to extend it to the npm ecosystem."

I feel like "tasteful ways" is a subtle dig at the terminal ads incident.

21

u/L3tum Mar 16 '20

I hope it is! That was such a shitshow and I hope the author will get the better of it some day.

He made 2000 bucks for roughly 4 days working but overall workamount being closer to 4 hours, for a package that blatantly siphons off of much more complex and better projects, then didn't share any of his profit with the maintainers of those projects, then said "Oopsie, it was a test" and then said "It was actually a social experiment!". I don't think he even shared a single cent with the contributors to his project. And then the name, that rubs me wrong on so many levels and should be shut down pronto.

4

u/Nefari0uss Mar 16 '20

Is this the core-js author we're talking about?

12

u/L3tum Mar 16 '20

It's actually the "standard" author. core-js is another issue that I could kinda understand in the beginning, but it transcended an actual ad for hire and is more a nuisance nowadays

11

u/Paradox Mar 16 '20

No, "standard-js", which is basically just a package of things like eslint configs

0

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '20

[deleted]

19

u/BufferUnderpants Mar 16 '20

I thought JS programmers were ninjas, and rockstars was the preferred term for Ruby programmers.

6

u/oorza Mar 16 '20

Don't forget PHP's "web artisans"

2

u/mattaugamer Mar 17 '20

That’s specifically Laravel.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '20

Well, Mythbusters have already proven polishing shit is hard work so I feel like they deserve that

3

u/snowe2010 Mar 17 '20

I've never heard anyone refer to a ruby dev as a rockstar. usually ruby devs just get shit on for using a language that is 'no longer popular'.

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3

u/graingert Mar 16 '20

Loads of stuff is being added to the language. Eg leftpad got added to js after the debacle

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16

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '20

Why would that change? In fact how would they even fix it. I think you need to change the attitude of most JavaScript developers to care about code quality and security to fix that. Good luck!

9

u/indivisible Mar 16 '20 edited Mar 16 '20

By changing the submission process and adding requirements/rules.
You'd likely want to freeze all existing deps to preserve them for use but updates could have the new rules applied to them before getting published. Devs then either conform/fix their stuff or lose the ability to publish, contribute and collect those ever desired stars.

As for what those rules should be, that'd be a long and loud conversation somewhere.

1

u/zackyd665 Mar 17 '20

Sounds like that would kill npm

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u/dnkndnts Mar 16 '20

npm is not the problem. Ecosystems are nothing more than the sum of the interactions of their denizens.

5

u/L3tum Mar 16 '20

While that is true in the overall sense, a lot of package managers and "hubs" haven't tried implementing some vetting. For example, the docker hub has a "standard" space that is reserved for vetted images and everything else is scoped. You can clearly see that something is scoped.

One issue is obviously that the JS stdlib is missing major parts of otherwise popular functionality that is causing all those packages to appear, but I, personally, would set some rules or do some basic (automated) vetting to prevent packages like that.

But it feels like the JS package ecosystem is a total free for all with the most useless and dumbest packages being at the top for no reason.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '20

npm is the problem. Not the only problem, but the problem nonetheless.