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Do you feel the same about easter eggs? Because when I argue that and give example of easter eggs which caused security vulnerabilities or broke shell scripts

by 323 5y ago

Do you feel the same about easter eggs? Because when I argue that and give example of easter eggs which caused security vulnerabilities or broke shell scripts on certain dates people reply "oh, lighten up, you are just a party killer, allow some human touch"

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
> Do you feel the same about easter eggs? Absolutely! Undocumented Easter Eggs cannot be tolerated in any software project today. Larry Osterman wrote about why Microsoft (and most other major software vendors) banned easter-eggs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/archive/blogs/larryosterman/why-no-easter-eggs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/archive/blogs/larryosterman... The important point is (to quote): > If the manufacturer of the software that's on every desktop in your company can't stop their developers from sneaking undocumented features into the product (even features as relatively benign as an Easter Egg), how can you be sure that they've not snuck some other undocumented feature into the code. But if an easter-egg is is documented and implemented following normal software engineering practices then that's fine (of course paying customers won't be happy to learn that's where the team is putting their resources), and you can still keep things "secret" by hiding them in spoiler-tags or similar in your changelist - but there must never be any unaccounted-for functionality in a software project.
TobyTheDog123 5y ago
I'm a bit torn, tell you the truth. But there is absolutely a difference between an easter egg, something that usually takes real effort to discover and trigger, and something that runs as part of normal execution. In regards to the examples you give where it causes vulnerabilities or bugs, I think it can be a test if the software you're actually embedding the egg in needs to be improved. If an easter egg breaks something then that's probably indicative of a larger problem.
JohnHaugeland 5y ago
Please don't try to equate easter eggs with intentional damaging code. This shouldn't be a difficult discussion in this way.

by 323 5y ago

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago

> Do you feel the same about easter eggs? Absolutely! Undocumented Easter Eggs cannot be tolerated in any software project today. Larry Osterman wrote about why Microsoft (and most other major software vendors) banned easter-eggs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/archive/blogs/larryosterman/why-no-easter-eggs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/archive/blogs/larryosterman... The important point is (to quote): > If the manufacturer of the software that's on every desktop in your company can't stop their developers from sneaking undocumented features into the product (even features as relatively benign as an Easter Egg), how can you be sure that they've not snuck some other undocumented feature into the code. But if an easter-egg is is documented and implemented following normal software engineering practices then that's fine (of course paying customers won't be happy to learn that's where the team is putting their resources), and you can still keep things "secret" by hiding them in spoiler-tags or similar in your changelist - but there must never be any unaccounted-for functionality in a software project.

TobyTheDog123 5y ago

I'm a bit torn, tell you the truth. But there is absolutely a difference between an easter egg, something that usually takes real effort to discover and trigger, and something that runs as part of normal execution. In regards to the examples you give where it causes vulnerabilities or bugs, I think it can be a test if the software you're actually embedding the egg in needs to be improved. If an easter egg breaks something then that's probably indicative of a larger problem.

JohnHaugeland 5y ago

Please don't try to equate easter eggs with intentional damaging code. This shouldn't be a difficult discussion in this way.