4 ms·

React.__SECRET_INTERNALS_DO_NOT_USE_OR_YOU_WILL_BE_FIRED

29 points by davidbarker 5y ago

ThrowawayR2 5y ago
Related previous discussion: "Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345)
RajT88 5y ago
Mixed messages.
shantnutiwari 5y ago
Not a Javascript expert (and no knowledge of how FB work), so one question: Why, just why?
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  You can't make package contents actually private so you have to discourage developers from depending on them in other ways.
  - CodeMage 5y ago
    Okay, but why re-export it like this, then?
  - bradly 5y ago
    That makes sense, but threatening people’s jobs in a public package definitely rubs me the wrong way.
    - ac2u 5y ago
      I gathered it as toungue-in-cheek
      - bradly 5y ago
        Oh I did as well, but junior developers, non-native English speakers, and under-represented engineers may have a harder time understanding the sarcasm or the believe the risk-of-ruin if they are misunderstanding the message is too high. Many of us are very privileged with the tech job market, that isn’t the case for everyone.
        DoctorDabadedoo 5y ago
        Considering this comes from facebook, I hold no expectations regarding the morality of their actions. This is par for the course (would be stretch, but hey it's facebook).
    - eminence32 5y ago
      It's not a threat that sense. But it's eye-catching language that's supposed to make people take the "do not use" warning seriously.
    - Brian_K_White 5y ago
      Did it encourage or discourage you from unsafe tight coupling? What do you mean threatening? Are you 5 years old and scared of words and also unable to interpret hyperbole? Perbaps you can guess from my comment here that something rubs me the wrong way too. Are you obligated to care about that? If I tried to suggest that you inject at least one "this wiill kill you cat" in your free public works because the dry lack of life rubs me the wrong way, what would be your response?
      - bradly 5y ago
        > Are you 5 years old and scared of words This is not the way we communicate on Hacker News and I will not validate it with a response. Refer to the guidelines if this is unclear.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
    The better way is to actually change such undocumented stuff unpredictably and automatically every release. Write a script to randomize the structure layout. Append random text to names. Don't document any of that, and don't keep the scripts to do so in the same repo. "This might change or break at any time" isn't nearly as good a deterrent as "This will change every release. Don't use it directly, use the public interface at <insert location>".
notRobot 5y ago
Previously, 25 days ago: Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345
rplnt 5y ago
> No, it’s not safe to use. That’s why it has a scary name. We offer no guarantees about what will happen if you access things there. The behavior can change on any release. We strongly recommend against touching it in your library if you don’t want that library to break later. from: https://github.com/reactjs/reactjs.org/issues/3896#issuecomment-914036200 https://github.com/reactjs/reactjs.org/issues/3896#issuecomm...
samwillis 5y ago
Discussion from 25 days ago: "Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345
jdrc 5y ago
That's a provocateur
KaiserPro 5y ago
I suspect this is also a hangover from hack, as all modules are public and declared across the entire codebase. so to stop people using them, they append names like this to it. Could be wrong though.
mysterydip 5y ago
Reminds me of some SANs I used to support. In order to wipe it clean (with several warnings), you had to type "deleteallmydatanow" in a box and submit. We had more than one support call on "I did this thing and now all my data is gone."
- hiyer 5y ago
  To be fair, that is a bit hard to read and some people probably just read it letter by letter in the heat of the moment. Maybe you should have put underscores or hyphens between the words :-).

29 points by davidbarker 5y ago

Related previous discussion: "Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345)

RajT88 5y ago

Mixed messages.

shantnutiwari 5y ago

Not a Javascript expert (and no knowledge of how FB work), so one question: Why, just why?

bpodgursky 5y ago
You can't make package contents actually private so you have to discourage developers from depending on them in other ways.
- CodeMage 5y ago
  Okay, but why re-export it like this, then?
- bradly 5y ago
  That makes sense, but threatening people’s jobs in a public package definitely rubs me the wrong way.
  - ac2u 5y ago
    I gathered it as toungue-in-cheek
    - bradly 5y ago
      Oh I did as well, but junior developers, non-native English speakers, and under-represented engineers may have a harder time understanding the sarcasm or the believe the risk-of-ruin if they are misunderstanding the message is too high. Many of us are very privileged with the tech job market, that isn’t the case for everyone.
      - DoctorDabadedoo 5y ago
        Considering this comes from facebook, I hold no expectations regarding the morality of their actions. This is par for the course (would be stretch, but hey it's facebook).
  - eminence32 5y ago
    It's not a threat that sense. But it's eye-catching language that's supposed to make people take the "do not use" warning seriously.
  - Brian_K_White 5y ago
    Did it encourage or discourage you from unsafe tight coupling? What do you mean threatening? Are you 5 years old and scared of words and also unable to interpret hyperbole? Perbaps you can guess from my comment here that something rubs me the wrong way too. Are you obligated to care about that? If I tried to suggest that you inject at least one "this wiill kill you cat" in your free public works because the dry lack of life rubs me the wrong way, what would be your response?
    - bradly 5y ago
      > Are you 5 years old and scared of words This is not the way we communicate on Hacker News and I will not validate it with a response. Refer to the guidelines if this is unclear.
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
  The better way is to actually change such undocumented stuff unpredictably and automatically every release. Write a script to randomize the structure layout. Append random text to names. Don't document any of that, and don't keep the scripts to do so in the same repo. "This might change or break at any time" isn't nearly as good a deterrent as "This will change every release. Don't use it directly, use the public interface at <insert location>".

notRobot 5y ago

Previously, 25 days ago: Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345

rplnt 5y ago

> No, it’s not safe to use. That’s why it has a scary name. We offer no guarantees about what will happen if you access things there. The behavior can change on any release. We strongly recommend against touching it in your library if you don’t want that library to break later. from: https://github.com/reactjs/reactjs.org/issues/3896#issuecomment-914036200 https://github.com/reactjs/reactjs.org/issues/3896#issuecomm...

samwillis 5y ago

Discussion from 25 days ago: "Is it safe to use __secret_internals_do_not_use_or_you_will_be_fired?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30194345

jdrc 5y ago

That's a provocateur

KaiserPro 5y ago

I suspect this is also a hangover from hack, as all modules are public and declared across the entire codebase. so to stop people using them, they append names like this to it. Could be wrong though.

mysterydip 5y ago

Reminds me of some SANs I used to support. In order to wipe it clean (with several warnings), you had to type "deleteallmydatanow" in a box and submit. We had more than one support call on "I did this thing and now all my data is gone."

hiyer 5y ago
To be fair, that is a bit hard to read and some people probably just read it letter by letter in the heat of the moment. Maybe you should have put underscores or hyphens between the words :-).