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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • Protect from accidental data damage: for example the dev might have accidentally pushed an untested change where there’s a space in the path

    rm -rf / ~/.thatappconfig/locatedinhome/nothin.config

    a single typo that will wipe the whole drive instead of just the app config (yes, it happened, I remember clearly more a decade ago there was a commit on GitHub with lots of snarky comments on a script with such a typo)

    Also: malicious developers that will befriend the honest dev in order to sneak an exploit.

    Those scripts need to be universal, so there are hundreds of lines checking the Linux distro and what tools are installed, and ask the user to install them with a package manager. They require hours and hours of testing with multiple distros and they aren’t easy to understand too… isn’t it better to use that time to simply write a clear documentation how to install it?

    Like: “this app requires to have x, y and z preinstalled. [Instructions to install said tools on various distros], then copy it in said subdirectory and create config in ~/.ofcourseinhome/”

    It’s also easier for the user to uninstall it, as they can follow the steps in reverse








  • They’re useful for printed media

    “Find more info at bitly/event” instead of “find more info at facebook.com/unnecessarilylongurlthatnobodyisgoingtotype”

    Or for a qr code where it needs to be small and somehow your URL is too long

    But yes, relying on a third party company for something that needs to last a long time isn’t really smart. There are many books that have online content now inaccessible because they used a link shortener that’s dead or that doesn’t let you update the redirection without paying a ransom (need to pay $120/year to bitly if you need to change the redirection)