Spec RFC

[4kimov]

The spec is complete as far my todos.

The next steps would be to implement individual ports/repos and any change to the spec would have to be propagated to the other repos, so the best time to improve it is now.

The tests should show you how to use the spec. Feel free to delete tests/uniques.test.ts while you're running this locally, because this file will take a while; otherwise, tests finish instantly.

I'd appreciate feedback on anything, but especially:

• Whether the shuffle function produces the best possible shuffle (performance vs randomization)
• Optimizing the default blacklist. Who speaks multiple languages?
• Performance. Can you see any loops that can be optimized? (The spec repo is optimized for readability/clarity, so optimizations would have to be about the Sqids algorithm, not JS/TS specific)
• Is there any better way to structure isBlockedId() function? There's a balance between matching too many words and not matching enough.

If no major issues, we can start implementing individual repos in about a week.

[tzvetkoff]

OK, I re-reviewed the spec and I have an issue with the default blacklist.

Having a default blacklist in the library is a nice thing. Forcing it on each implementation is not.
That been said, I'd like to have the option to initialize it with an empty blacklist. Current spec always prepends the default blacklist, which is something I'd rather not do.

Other than that, current blacklist search logic is just O(scary).

[tzvetkoff]

Perhaps something like

cosnt sqids = new Sqids({
  blacklist: [...defaultOptions.blacklist, customBlacklist]
});

Or maybe export the default blacklist as well as the defaultOptions?

[tzvetkoff]

We can even go further and have 1 default blacklist in the default package, and have another package with per-language blacklists, so users that need it can import the blacklist package and build their own set...
This will present another problem, though, with the evolution of said blacklists (although decode will still work.)

[4kimov]

Yeah, this could work. I do enjoy packages that have auto-configured settings. Perhaps something like this is a good balance:

const sqids = new Sqids(); // default blacklist
const sqids = new Sqids({ blacklist: [] }); // empty blacklist
const sqids = new Sqids({ blacklist: customBlacklist }); // custom blacklist
const sqids = new Sqids({ blacklist: [...defaultOptions.blacklist, ...customBlacklist] }); // default + custom blacklist

I'm just not sure all languages have the ability to handle something like this.

[tzvetkoff]

Perhaps not in 1 half-liner like JS/TS but it's still possible in a few lines. That is, if you'd require special configuration, and the language built-in support is poor, the library can provide API for that - I'm using, for example, linked lists in C.

[4kimov]

Cool, makes sense. Adjusted spec for the above.

[4kimov]

Any preference for passing the alphabet as a string or an array of chars to the constructor? More discussion here.

[4kimov]

Answered here: https://github.com/orgs/sqids/discussions/1#discussioncomment-6301537 (string) 👍