@tempest thank you! I would definitely love the help if I do end up using JS again 💙

@emberquill to be honest I don’t remember having too much trouble with imports in Rust, but that might’ve just been because I was overwhelmed by everything else lol. it is by far the most difficult language I’ve ever tried to learn

but omg I’m glad I’m not the only one who struggles with import systems - they drive me crazy most of the time

I feel like learning the import system is the worst part of learning any language because literally all of them suck for different reasons:

in Python you can’t import from parent directories without jumping through hoops and adding unnecessary __init__.py files everywhere. also the syntax for importing is really unintuitive and documented across multiple PEPs, each of which is a heavy read on its own

C-family languages generally don’t have proper import systems at all and what they have instead is probably a headachey clusterfuck

Java.

in Clojure if you want to import a file from another file at all you have to use a command called lein to generate a massive overcomplicated structure of directories and config files and then edit the config files and even then you have to import them using a fully-qualified namespace and every single file must manually specify which namespace it’s part of, but the namespace must also perfectly match its directory structure or it will silently fail to be imported. it’s like this confusing halfway point between a proper module system and a com.java.www.java.src.code.style.clusterfuck.system

I don’t know what’s going on with Common Lisp’s import system but it scares me, just like everything else about that language

Racket doesn’t have a proper concept of namespaces. if you import rackunit then by default everything from that module will be dumped into your current file, but you can choose to prefix those names with something like rackunit:so that they become named things like rackunit:check-eq? and rackunit:check-false. this isn’t a separate namespace though - it’s literally just renaming every import to start with rackunit:

one of JavaScript’s many, many import systems actually seems pretty nice - but I couldn’t tell you which one it is because I was relieved just to convince package.json to let me import anything at all and left it at that. good luck finding any documentation on your chosen import system btw, or even information on how the import systems differ or which to use. oh also if you install Node packages then have fun figuring out how to import them too. here’s a hint: it involves bashing your head against package.json some more

TypeScript somehow makes the package.json thing worse. like so much worse

IIRC Lua’s import system is based on the current directory instead of the directory of the current file, which means that you have to be cded to exactly the right directory when you run Lua code or you’ll get import errors and not know why. also the only clear description of how the import system works is in Programming In Lua which is outdated and missing some important details. and this isn’t even getting into the clusterfuck of trying to use someone else’s Lua library - especially if luarocks is involved

every time I learn a new language I dread when I’ll have to figure out how to import something, because there’s always some bullshit like this. every time

@dragonarchitect @monstercollie yeah in my experience any engagement or acknowledgement from you will make things worse. as soon as you show any signs of noticing them you’re basically showing them that you’re a fun target and that’s going to make them fixate on you, which could get pretty scary depending on the type of troll we’re talking about. there’s no way to win against them or get them to change their minds - any interaction whatsoever is just ammunition for them to use against you

at this point I block any random who is even slightly shitty to me. I don’t even give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. and let me tell you, my internetting experience is about 10000% better because of it

(I also report a lot of messages too! to help protect others from trolls/harassers/etc.)

“video games allow us to live fantasies that would otherwise be impossible”

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I feel like there’s a certain type of personality that is drawn to Linux because they like solving software problems and Linux gives them lots of software problems to solve

but eventually they get too good at solving Linux problems and get bored, so they switch to Arch - which delivers new software problems to their computer all the time. but eventually they get too good at solving Arch problems so they switch to NixOS, which is an infinite wellspring of software problems to solve